Interaction of doxorubicin with polynucleotides. A spectroscopic study.

The interaction of doxorubicin (DX) with model polynucleotides poly(dG-dC)·poly(dG-dC) (polyGC), poly(dA-dT)·poly(dA-dT) (polyAT), and calf thymus DNA has been studied by several spectroscopic techniques in phosphate buffer aqueous solutions. UV-vis, circular dichroism, and fluorescence spectroscopic data confirm that intercalation is the prevailing mode of interaction, and also reveal that the interaction with AT-rich regions leads to the transfer of excitation energy to DX not previously documented in the literature. Moreover, the DX affinity for AT sites has been found to be on the same order of magnitude as that reported for GC sites.