Vol. 1, Issue 7 (2012)

Author(s):
Permender Rathee*, Dharmender Rathee, Ashima Hooda, Vikash Kumar and Sushila Rathee

Abstract:
Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is a synthetic mimics of DNA in which the deoxyribose phosphate backbone is replaced by a pseudo-peptide polymer to which the nucleobases are linked. It is capable of recognizing specific sequences of DNA and RNA obeying the Watson–Crick hydrogen bonding scheme, and the hybrid complexes exhibit extraordinary thermal stability and unique ionic strength effects. Since its discovery, PNA has attracted major attention at the interface of chemistry and biology because of its unique, interesting physico-chemical and biological properties and its potential to act as an active component for diagnostics as well as pharmaceutical applications. PNA exhibits superior hybridization characteristics and improved chemical and enzymatic stability relative to nucleic acids. The more recent applications of PNA involve their use as molecular hybridization probes. Since PNA is capable of inhibiting transcription as well as translation, so it can be used as a new tool for antigene and antisense therapy. Thus, several sensitive and robust PNA-dependent methods have been designed for developing antigene and anticancer drugs, modulating PCR reactions, detecting genomic mutation or labelling chromosomes in situ. Owing to its superior properties, PNA could replace DNA as a probe for many investigation purposes including broad spectrum of clinical assays and environmental tests that will utilize the PNA technology. PNA will also perform a great impact on areas of in situ hybridization, cytogenetics and industrial microbiology. In this paper the potential applications of peptide nucleic acids has been discussed.