Regulation of thrombin activity by ligand-induced topological alteration in a thrombin-binding aptamer.

Thrombin-binding aptamer (TBA), which forms a G-quadruplex (G4) structure with anti-parallel topology, interacts with thrombin to inhibit its enzymatic activity. Here we show that the G4-topology-altering ligand L2H2-2M2EA-6LCO (6LCO) changes the anti-parallel topology of TBA G4 to the parallel topology, thereby abrogating the thrombin-inhibitory activity of TBA. This finding suggests that G4 ligands that alter topology may be promising drug candidates for diseases involving G4-binding proteins.