Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry
Paper
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Conclusions
The quest to find efficient quadruplex ligands is currently
moving forward at an accelerated pace, owing to the promising
therapeutic opportunities they uniquely offer. Rational chemi-
cal design has proven very useful for this quest; however, while
strategies devised to obtain high-affinity ligands rank high in
the realm of quadruplex ligands, those devoted to the design
of high-selectivity ligands are still rare. Here, we report on a
new approach that concomitantly enhances the quadruplex
selectivity and the water solubility of small molecules on the
basis of chemical modifications (PEGylation) classically
implemented to improve the pharmaceutical properties of
drug candidates.24 In light of the observation that hydrophobic
effects significantly increase π-interactions, highly stable
π-driven supramolecular assemblies can be envisioned in
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