- Iranian researchers used nanoparticles as quantum dots and presented a new, effective and sensitive method to study interaction between drug and DNA.

Data obtained from this method can be used in the designing of anticancer drugs.
Studying the interaction between drugs and DNA is important for designing more effective anticancer drugs and for better understanding of biological processes such as gene translation and DNA chain transcription. In this research, the mechanism of fluorescent resonance energy transfer (FRET) from drug to nanoparticle (quantum dot) has resulted in the creation of a highly sensitive method to study interaction between drug and DNA.
Dr. Somayyeh Gholami, a graduate in analytical chemistry from Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences in Zanjan, explained about the research, and said “Taking into account the shining and appropriate optical stability of quantum dots, FRET sensitive and powerful method was designed in this research to quantitatively study the interaction between actinomycin anticancer drug and genome double strand. The results showed that the predicted hybridation equivalent coefficient for the formation of drug-DNA compound was in acceptable agreement with laboratorial data, and it confirmed a strong bond between the drug and the double strand.”
“It must be pointed out that almost all the sequences related to four-strands are located at genome double strand zones. Therefore, the stability of DNA double strand or its combination with the drug can be considered a major limit for the formation of four-strands. In this study and by using an appropriate method and meaningful three dimensional data and using a powerful statistical method to analyze results, we succeeded in obtaining desirable information in this regard, which will be helpful in future studies in designing anticancer drugs,” she added.
Results of the research have been published in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, vol. 405, issue 19, July 2013, pp. 6271-6280.