Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons^™

Investigation Of Dna Interaction With Bis-Cationic Imidazolium Salts, Kyle Daily 6440928

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Imidazolium salt compounds have shown promise in vitro against non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) lines, but the exact mechanism of activity these compounds is still unknown. Due to their planar aromatic structure, we hypothesized that our bis-cation imidazolium salt series could act through DNA intercalation similar to known intercalators ethidium bromide, acridine orange, and echinomycin. Here, we tested bis-cation imidazolium salts with linkers of 2, 4, 10, and 12 carbons for DNA intercalation via viscosity and fluorescent intercalator displacement (FID) assays. Despite some solubility issues that may have decreased results, we found that our butyl and dodecyl linked compounds had …