Intercalative drug binding to DNA

Intercalator drugs are important in the treatment of cancers. The molecular interactions between them and DNA have been studied by X-ray diffraction and NMR. Some important examples include anthracycline antibiotics (e.g. daunorubicin, doxorubicin, nogalamycin and their derivatives) and bis-intercalator antibiotics (e.g. triostin, echinomycin and luzopeptin). Anthracyclines induce a small degree of helix unwinding but large buckles in base pairs flanking the intercalator ring. Daunorubicin and doxorubicin can be crosslinked to DNA efficiently by formaldehyde. Several structures reported during the past year are discussed.