Discovery of Selective Ligands for Telomeric RNA G-quadruplexes (TERRA) through 19F-NMR Based Fragment Screening

Telomeric repeat-containing RNA (TERRA) is a novel and very attractive antitumoral target. Here, we report the first successful application of F-19-NMR fragment-based screening to identify chemically diverse compounds that bind to an RNA molecule such as TERRA. We have built a library of 355 fluorinated fragments, and checked their interaction with a long telomeric RNA as a target molecule. The screening resulted in the identification of 20 hits (hit rate of 5.6%). For a number of binders, their interaction with TERRA was confirmed by F-19- and H-1 NMR as well as by CD melting experiments. We have also explored the selectivity of the ligands for RNA G-quadruplexes and found that some of the hits do not interact with other nucleic acids such as tRNA and duplex DNA and, most importantly, favor the propeller-like parallel conformation in telomeric DNA G-quadruplexes. This suggests a selective recognition of this particular quadruplex topology and that different ligands may recognize specific sites in propeller-like parallel G-quadruplexes. Such features make some of the resulting binders promising lead compounds for fragment based drug discovery.