Molecular dynamic simulations of diacridine binding to DNA: Indications that C6 diacridine can bisintercalate spanning two base pairs

Dimers of 9-aminoacridine linked via the 9-amino group with polymethylene chains, termed diacridines, are known to bisintercalate into DNA when the linker comprises 6 or more methylene units. There are no literature reports of crystal or NMR solution structures for bisintercalated diacridine-DNA complexes, and the issue of the structure of the C6 ([CH₂ ]_n linker where n = 6) diacridine complex remains unresolved. Previously, based on simple geometric considerations, it was proposed that C6 diacridine could only span a single base pair, which requires that its bifunctional reaction violates the widely-observed "neighbor exclusion principle" where bound intercalators are separated by at least 2 base pairs. Here we have explored the structure of diacridine-DNA complexes using unrestrained molecular dynamics in explicit solvent using the parmbsc0 forcefield in AMBER14. We studied the C4 to C8 dimers, intercalated via both the minor and major DNA grooves, to a variety of nucleotide sequences. We find that C6, C7, and C8 diacridine are able to form 2 base pair bisintercalated complexes from either groove, whereas the C4 and C5 homologues cannot. We conclude that C6 diacridine does have the capacity to bisintercalate without violating neighbor exclusion, and that the previous proposed binding model needs revision.