G-quadruplex DNA antibodies

Guanine rich nucleic acids can adopt peculiar secondary structures, known as G-quadruplexes (G4), formed by the stacking of guanine tetrads (G-quartets), the latter resulting from the coplanar arrangement of four guanines linked by Hoogsteen hydrogen bonds. They are particular abundant in telomeric regions, which are essential for chromosome stability and replication. A major limitation in the study of these structures is their intrinsic polymorphism: they can indeed form parallel, anti-parallel or mixed topologies.
Using a constrained G4 system developed in DCM, we were able to select new antibodies that are highly selective for the anti-parallel G-quadruplex topology of the telomeric sequence. These new antibodies show no affinity for either parallel G4s or double-stranded or single-stranded DNA.
They could therefore be used in cell biology to detect/visualise/quantify the telomeric G-quadruplex by limiting the background noise associated with the use of other commercially available G-quadruplex antibodies such as BG4.