Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Nucleotides with carbon substitution for heteroatoms are common in biological and therapeutic RNAs. Important examples include the C-nucleosides pseudouridine and N1-methyl-pseudouridine; these modifications were reported to slow degradation of large RNAs, but the mechanism is unknown. We measured kinetics of spontaneous and enzymatic cleavage at a single bond of synthetically modified RNAs, and find that carbon substitution markedly reduces strand cleavage rates in RNA by both mechanisms. Studies of nucleophilic acylation reactions of RNAs and of small alcohols of varied pKa suggest that reduced inductive effects resulting from carbon substitution for electronegative atoms results in both higher pKa and lower nucleophilicity. The results provide insight into native transcriptome modifications as well as RNA therapies.
Source: ACS Central Science
Authors: Dipanwita Banerjee, Lu Xiao, Pavitra S. Thacker, Jayanta Kundu, Muthiah Manoharan, Eric T. Kool
Institutions: Stanford University, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (United States)
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Awards: G3509798374, G7281539788, G9000309257
OpenAlex ID: W4415619505