Click–click chemistry on a peptidic scaffold for easy access to tetrameric DNA structures

The use of a peptidic template and orthogonal oxime ligation and CuAAC reaction allows a stepwise approach for the design of antiparallel tetrameric DNA structure. As a proof of concept template assisted synthesis of i-motif DNA was achieved. As anticipated, a dramatic improvement in the stability of such a tetrameric structure was observed. More interestingly the formation of the i-motif was still observed at neutral pH, which could be attributed to the spatial proximity of the basic centers.