Guanine quadruplexes are a class of unusual nucleic acids conformations based on stacked planar guanine tetrads stabilized via Hoogsteen pairing and cation coordination. They are implicated in numerous cellular processes including replication, recombination or transcription. Guanine quadruplexes are widespread within the human genome but their occurrence is highest in the single stranded guanine-rich regions at telomeres. Telomeric guanine quadruplexes are gaining growing interest due to their ability to inhibit the activity of the telomerase enzyme, which is responsible for the proliferation of tumor cells. Specifically, we investigated the conformational polymorphism of the human core telomeric sequence G3(TTAG3)3 conditioned by the concentration of DNA, metal cations (K+ , Na+ ) and/or annealing. Raman spectroscopy was employed as the primary method for this study because, unlike common spectroscopic methods, it allowed us to monitor the quadruplex structure at very high DNA concentrations mimicking molecular crowding conditions in the cell. We demonstrate that the G3(TTAG3)3 quadruplex switch between the antiparallel and parallel strand alignment as a function of nucleoside and potassium concentration. In addition, we demonstrate that cationic porphyrins can be used as sensitive probes of the quadruplex...

The aim of this thesis was using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) microspectroscopy for the study of biomolecules and biological systems. The main probe molecule was cationic porphyrin H2TMPyP, however, other porphyrins, tryptophan and two lipids were also used. The sensitivity and reproducibility of several solid SERS substrates: (i) Au and Ag nanoparticles (NPs) immobilized via a bifunctional linker, (ii) AgNPs immobilized by drying, (iii) highly ordered Au and Ag film-over-nanosphere (FON) and (iv) Ag-coated insect wings were compared. On most of the solid substrates, the lowest detected H2TMPyP concentration was ~10-8 M. The highest sensitivity was provided by the dried drops of AgNPs/analyte mixture, where concentrations 1×10-10 M TMPyP, 1×10-5 M tryptophan, 2×10-7 M DSPC and 3×10-7 M DMTAP were detected. Nevertheless, the spectral reproducibility was decreased due to porphyrin metallation and perturbation of the lipid spectra in comparison to their Raman spectra from solution. The highest reproducibility was achieved by AuFON and Ag-coated insect wings. Finally, the AgNPs modified by PEG polymers were tested for intracellular application using HeLa cancer cells. Metallation of H2TMPyP served to probe the accessibility of PEG- AgNPs surface. The results proved that the accessibility...

Title: Optimization of surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy for study of biologically important biomolecules and their interactions Author: Natália Šmídová Department: Institute of Physics of Charles University Supervisor of the doctoral thesis: Doc. RNDr. Marek Procházka, PhD. Abstract: The main goal of this thesis was to optimize surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy for study of biologically important biomolecules. For that purpose we focused on substrates based on gold colloidal nanoparticles immobilized to silanized glass plates. Stable, uniform and highly reproducible SERS-active substrates have been prepared by using aminopropyltrimethoxysilane and citrate- reduced gold nanoparticles thermally stabilized after their immobilization. Model biomolecules 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(1-methyl-4-pyridyl)porphyrin (TMPyP) and 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (TSPP) were studied on these substrates by using a classical Raman spectrometer in macro-mode and a confocal Raman microspectrometer. Conditions for SERS spectroscopy of porphyrins were optimized with respect to sensitivity and reproducibility. SERS microspectroscopy showed several advantages over SERS measurements in macromode: possibility of surface spectral mapping, easier manipulation with samples, shorter...

Porphyrins are an important class of biomolecules, which are heavily studied, both ex- perimentally and computationally. But, despite the intensive efforts, for many questions we still aren't able to consistently find an agreement between theory and experiment. One of the still unresolved issues is the character of the ground state of the Fe(II)-porphyrin molecule. We used a model of the Fe(II)-porphyrin molecule to study the effects of geometrical changes on the spin states. By carrying out extensive DMRG-CASSCF cal- culations topped with TCCSD correlation treatment we are able to link the effects of these geometrical changes to the experimental results, and predict a quintet ground state for the isolated Fe(II)-porphyrin molecule. Also, using a ligated porphyrin belonging to the iron porphyrin carbene class of molecules, we demonstrate by combining the CASSCF and AC0 methods that geometrical changes outside the porphyrin core cannot be over- looked. 1