Phosphonic Acid Dialkylamine PNA Monomers for Solubility and Uptake

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Solution Overview

Problem

Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) face limitations in therapeutic applications due to poor water solubility, difficulty penetrating cell membranes, and limited bioavailability, which restricts their effectiveness in antisense therapy.

Innovation Solution

Development of novel PNA monomers and oligomers with a dialkylamine side chain substituted with phosphonic acid ester or phosphonic acid groups, enhancing water solubility, cell uptake, and bioavailability by improving sequence-independent water solubility, binding properties, and half-life, and increasing binding to blood-plasma proteins.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Quantity of substance

If PNAs are modified with lysine side chains to improve water solubility, then water solubility increases, but the PNAs become trapped in intracellular endosomes and are not sufficiently available within the cell for binding to RNA

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvewater solubilityVSAvoidcellular availability
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent changes the chemical parameters of the side chain by replacing lysine with a dialkylamine group containing phosphonic acid ester or phosphonic acid groups. This parameter change achieves both improved water solubility and proper intracellular distribution, resolving the contradiction between solubility enhancement and cellular availability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

2Ease of operation

If PNAs are modified with arginine side chains to improve cell uptake, then cell uptake increases, but bioavailability is limited to only kidneys, liver and tumor tissue

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecell uptakeVSAvoidtissue distribution
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent modifies the side chain parameters by introducing a dialkylamine group with phosphonic acid ester or phosphonic acid groups, which changes the chemical properties to achieve both good cell uptake and broad tissue distribution, resolving the contradiction between uptake efficiency and tissue versatility.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

3Quantity of substance

If PNAs are modified with alkyl phosphonic acid ester groups to improve water solubility and cell penetration, then water solubility and cell penetration improve, but water solubility becomes sequence-dependent which complicates therapeutic use

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvewater solubilityVSAvoidsequence-dependency
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent changes the side chain structure to a dialkylamine group with phosphonic acid ester or phosphonic acid groups, which provides strong water solubility that is independent of the nucleobase sequence, thereby resolving the contradiction between achieving solubility and maintaining sequence independence.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

4Reliability

If PNAs are used as antisense therapeutics, then they can recognize complementary nucleic acid sequences with high affinity, but they are poorly water-soluble and have difficulty penetrating cell membranes

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvebinding affinityVSAvoidwater solubility
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality modification by introducing a dialkylamine side chain with phosphonic acid ester or phosphonic acid groups at specific positions of the PNA backbone. This localized modification improves water solubility and cell membrane penetration while preserving the high binding affinity of the nucleobases for complementary sequences.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent creates a composite structure by combining the PNA backbone with a dialkylamine side chain containing phosphonic acid ester or phosphonic acid groups. This composite material integrates the high binding affinity of PNA with the improved solubility and membrane penetration properties of the phosphonic acid-containing side chain.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #40Composite materials

Data Source

PatentEP3143038B8Peptide-nucleic acid-monomers and -oligomers
Publication Date: 2018.09.12 UGISENSE AG

AI summary

The invention relates to new peptide nucleic acid monomers and peptide nucleic acid oligomers comprising a dialkylamine side chain substituted with phosphonic acid ester group(s) or phosphonic acid group(s), and to the uses thereof.