Exploiting RNA as a new biomolecular target for synthetic polyamines

• RNA has been recently validated as a cancer target.
• Natural and synthetic polyamines (PAs) are able to interact and/or to alter RNA.
• RNA damage caused by PAs was quantified by microfluid capillary electrophoresis.
• The most effective PA was DL5 with a RIN value of 0.1 at 15.6 μM.
• This study represents the first attempt to quantify the RNA damage by synthetic PAs.

Anticancer chemotherapy is strongly hampered by the low therapeutic index of most anticancer drugs and the development of chemoresistance. Therefore, there is a continued need for the identification of new molecular targets in order to selectively hit cancer cells. RNA has been recently validated as a cancer target by the use of different specific ligands and/or by different agents able to destroy its diverse forms. The ability of synthetic polyamines to interact and to alter the RNA structure has been already reported. In the present paper the interaction and the ability to damage RNA structure by several synthetic polyamines were evaluated and quantified by microfluid capillary electrophoresis. This technique allowed us to visualize both the RNA impairment through different electropherograms and to assess the RNA integrity number. Finally, the ability to discriminate between RNA and DNA by these synthetic polyamines was also evaluated.

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