Molecular Modelling and Cytotoxicity of Substituted Anthraquinones as Inhibitors of Human Telomerase Original Research Article

Molecular modelling has been carried out for a number of amine-functionalised anthraquinone derivatives to determine their extent of binding to G-tetraplex DNA and their ability to inhibit the enzymes telomerase and Taq polymerase. The results are compared to data obtained from a modified TRAP assay and show good correlation between the two methods. The findings suggest that anthraquinone derivatives of this type inhibit telomerase by stabilisation of four-stranded tetraplex structures associated with guanine-rich telomeric DNA regions.