Cell-permeable peptide nucleic acid designed to bind to the 5'-untranslated region of E-cadherin transcript induces potent and sequence-specific antisense effects.

Establishing a general and effective method for regulating gene expression in mammalian systems is important for many aspects of biological and biomedical research. Herein we report the antisense activities of a cell-permeable, guanidine-based peptide nucleic acid (PNA) called GPNA. We show that a GPNA oligomer designed to bind to the transcriptional start-site of human E-cadherin gene induces potent and sequence-specific antisense effects and is less toxic to the cells than the corresponding PNA-polyarginine conjugate. GPNA confers its silencing effect by blocking protein translation. The findings reported in this study provide a molecular framework for designing the next generation cell-permeable nucleic acid mimics for regulating gene expression in live cells and intact organisms.