Targeting DNA with small molecules: a comparative study of a library of azonia aromatic chromophores

A library of azonia aromatic cations has been studied in order to gain insights into the effect of the size, shape and charge distribution on the fluorescence, DNA interactions and DNA sequence selectivity properties. Fluorescence-based thermal denaturation experiments, spectrofluorimetric titrations, circular dichroism measurements and theoretical simulations have shown that some of the studied chromophores have interesting fluorescence properties and two of them also show a consistent DNA-binding ability by intercalation, with a potential preference for AT-rich sequences.