Nucleic Acid Mimetics: Synthesis, Probe Design and Bioanalytical Applications
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Chemical Biology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2027 | Viewed by 45
Editor
Interests: PNA; splice switching oligonucleotides; FIT-(Forced Intercalation)-PNA; cancer diagnosis; SNP detection; PNA-peptide conjugates
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Nucleic acid analogs (mimetics) have been chemically synthesized and extensively studied for several decades across a variety of fields, including oligonucleotide-based therapeutics and nucleic acid-based sensing platforms. In many cases, such chemically modified nucleic acids provide enhanced chemical and biological stability, increased affinity toward the target bioanalyte, and improved sequence selectivity compared to their natural nucleic acid counterparts.
These advantageous properties arise from structural modifications to nucleobases, sugar moieties, or backbone architecture, which can enhance resistance to enzymatic degradation while preserving, or even strengthening, hybridization with complementary nucleic acid sequences. As a result, nucleic acid mimetics have emerged as valuable tools for molecular diagnostics, gene regulation, intracellular imaging, and targeted therapeutic applications. Their ability to recognize nucleic acid targets or small molecules as bioanalytes with high specificity has enabled the development of highly sensitive biosensing technologies. Continued advances in synthetic chemistry and molecular design have further expanded the repertoire of nucleic acid analogs, thereby improving their applicability in both research and clinical settings.
This Special Issue, “Nucleic Acid Mimetics: Synthesis, Probe Design and Bioanalytical Applications”, welcomes original research and review articles in the field, focusing on chemically modified nucleic acids as a means to develop tailored sensing molecules with improved properties, such as sensitivity and specificity to the analyte, whether RNA/DNA biomarkers or small molecule bioanalytes.
Dr. Eylon Yavin
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- nucleic acid mimics
- XNA
- molecular probes
- sensors
- bioanalytes
- biomarkers
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