Thio-heterocylic naphthalimides with aminoalkyl side chains: novel alternative tools for photodegradation of genomic DNA without impairment on bioactivities of proteins Original Research Article

Thio-heterocylic naphthalimides (R1–R5) were designed, synthesized and evaluated as nonmetallic and long-wavelength photocleavers. Some of them showed highly efficient abilities in the degradation of plasmid and genomic DNA under the mild conditions without obvious impairment on the proteins’ bioactivities, when compared with frequently applied nucleic acids removal reagents or precipitants. Their differences in photodegradation selectivity to DNA rather than proteins were dependent on their photodamage mechanisms and binding modes with bio-macromolecules. When maize genomic DNA was used as substrate, 2.38 × 10−4 M of R5 exhibited the nuclease activity of 8 Unit DNase I, R5 has some characteristic as a typical catalyst as no consumption after two cycles of the photodegradation for DNA. The experiments of enzymatic activity assay and immunology activity analysis showed that R5 was safe to proteins, suggesting its potential in the removal of transgenic material during the preparation of bioactive proteins or enzyme preparations.