Berlin 2018 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 9: Postersession I

BP 9.16: Poster

Monday, March 12, 2018, 17:30–19:30, Poster A

Quantifying the association of the chemotherapeutic drug mitoxantrone to DNA by magnetic tweezers — •Dennis Kreft, Ying Wang, Helene Schellenberg, Katja Tönsing, and Dario Anselmetti — Experimental Biophysics and Applied Nanoscience, Bielefeld Institute for Nanoscience (BINAS), Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

Chemotherapeutic agents (anti-cancer drugs) are small cytotoxic molecules that often bind to double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and thus interfere with the cell division process (mitosis). For medical regulation and optimization issues of these pharmaceutical products, it is inevitable to identify/quantify their binding mechanism. Therefore, we investigated the anthraquinone compound mitoxantrone that is used for treating certain cancer types like leukemia and lymphoma. We employed magnetic tweezers (MT) to investigate the association of mitoxantrone with dsDNA and conducted force-extension and rotation-extension experiments with a sensitivity from some piconewtons down to tens of femtonewtons. We found a concentration-dependent bimodal binding behavior, where mitoxantrone associates to dsDNA either as a groove binder at low concentrations and as an intercalator at high concentrations.