Novel nucleic acid architectures involving locked nucleic acid (LNA) and pyrene residues: Results from an Indo-Danish collaboration

We report herein our results for locked nucleic acid (LNA)-type oligonucleotides containing pyrene residues. Pyrene has a large hydrophobic and planar surface area and is therefore a potential intercalating unit; furthermore, it is interesting as a fluorescent tag when covalently bound to DNA. Synthesis and hybridization of conformationally locked universal base surrogates are described together with efficient interstrand communication as shown by the formation of pyrene excimer bands for duplexes containing 2'-N-(pyren-1-yl)methyl-2'-amino-LNA monomers positioned in a zipper-like manner within a DNA duplex.