Natural aromatic compounds as scaffolds to develop selective G-quadruplex ligands. From previously reported berberine derivatives to new palmatine analogues
In this paper, the selective interactions of synthetic derivatives of two natural compounds, berberine and palmatine,with DNA G-quadruplex structureswere reported. In particular, the previous works on this subject concerning berberine were further presented and discussed, whereas the results concerning palmatine are presented here for the first time. In detail, these palmatine derivatives were developed by inserting seven different small peptide basic chains, giving several new compounds that have never been reported before.