Improvement of base selectivity and binding affinity by controlling hydrogen bonding motifs between nucleobases and isoxanthopterin: application to the detection of T/C mutation.

At an abasic site in an oligo-DNA duplex, isoxanthopterin (IX)(dagger) can bind to thymine (T) and cytosine (C) with strong affinity compared to adenine and guanine, but the base selectivity for T against C is moderate. In order to improve both binding affinity and base selectivity for T against C, a methyl group is introduced to IX, which is known as 3-methyl isoxanthopterin (3-MIX),(dagger) by which binding affinity for C is expected to decrease. Indeed, 3-MIX specifically binds to T more strongly than IX and loses its binding affinity for C. The improved binding ability of 3-MIX for T would be suitable for the practical use in SNP typing related to T.