Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2020, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (2): 151-156.doi: 10.1007/s40242-019-0024-3

• Reviews • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Evolution of Artificial Base Pairs with Hydrogen Bond Complementarity

TIAN Jinmiao1, CHEN Sikai1, WANG Xiang1, LI Juan1,2   

  1. 1. Institute of Molecular Medicine, State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200127, P. R. China;
    2. Key Laboratory for Analytical Science of Food Safety and Biology, Ministry of Education, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Analysis and Detection Technology for Food Safety, State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, P. R. China
  • Received:2019-10-28 Revised:2019-11-29 Online:2020-04-01 Published:2020-03-18
  • Contact: LI Juan E-mail:lijuan@fzu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.21622502, 21702136), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province, China(No.2017J06004) and the Shanghai Rising-star Program, China(No.19QA1405400).

Abstract: Artificial base pairs, from the perspective of synthetic biology, are designed to contain the features of modularity, orthogonality, and manipulability. And the development of artificial base pairs has been endowed with responsibility to understand the biological process, improve the recognition capacity and stability of aptamers, and develop the nucleoside drugs, diagnosis, and drug delivery. In this review, we first gave a concise introduction of artificial base pairs based on their interaction modes including alternative hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interaction, and metal coordination. Then we displayed the detailed information of artificial base pairs with hydrogen bonding interaction, and analyzed how the changes of their structures affect their functions. Subsequently, we highlighted the applications of functional artificial base pairs in aptamer discovery, diagnosis, and drug delivery. Finally, an insight into the remaining challenges and future perspective of the artificial bases was provided.

Key words: Artificial base pair, Nucleic acid, Hydrogen bonding base pair, Hydrophobic base pair, Metal-base pair, Aptamer