查看文章

Telomerase and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) are two potential cancer biomarkers and are closely related to tumor initiation and malignant progression. TOTO-1 is well-known for differentiating ss-DNA from ds-DNA because it is virtually non-fluorescent without DNA and exhibits very low fluorescence with ss-DNA, while it emits strong fluorescence with ds-DNA. In this paper, for the first time, it was found that TOTO-1 has high fluorescence selectivity and sensitivity towards the G bases in single-stranded DNA and poly(ADP-ribose) (PAR). Poly(dG) was used as the model target to explore its possible mechanism. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation proved that intramolecular π–π stacking existed in TOTO-1 (in an aqueous solution), while intermolecular π–π stacking formed between TOTO-1 and poly(dG) in a similar way as that observed for dsDNA. Interestingly, telomerase and PARP-1 catalyzed the …