Novel paromamine derivatives exploring shallow-groove recognition of ribosomal-decoding-site RNA.

Natural aminoglycoside antibiotics recognize an internal loop of bacterial ribosomal-decoding-site RNA by binding to the deep groove of the RNA structure. We have designed, synthesized, and tested RNA-targeted paromamine derivatives that exploit additional interactions on the shallow groove face of the decoding-site RNA. An in vitro transcription-translation assay of a series of 6'-derivatives showed the 6'-position to be very sensitive to substitution. This result suggests that the group at the 6'-position plays a pivotal role in RNA target recognition.