TY - JOUR AU - Mateja-Pluta, Martyna AU - Błaszczyk, Leszek AU - Bejger, Magdalena AU - Nakatani, Kazuhiko AU - Kiliszek, Agnieszka TI - Naphthyridine carbamate dimer ligand induces formation of Z-RNA-like fold of disease-related RNA and exhibits a molecular glue characteristics in crystal lattice formation JO - Nucleic acids research VL - 53 IS - 17 SN - 0305-1048 CY - Oxford PB - Oxford Univ. Press M1 - PUBDB-2025-04390 SP - gkaf924 PY - 2025 N1 - ISSN 1362-4962 not unique: **2 hits**. AB - The naphthyridine carbamate dimer (NCD) is a small molecule that recognizes disease-related RNA containing UGGAA repeats associated with spinocerebellar ataxia type 31 (SCA 31) and alleviates the disease phenotype in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we use X-ray crystallography to elucidate the mode of NCD binding in detail. We determine the crystal structures of the RNA–NCD complex and a structure of unliganded RNA. The NCD interacts differently than in previously reported nuclear magnetic resonance structure, forming pseudo-canonical base pairs with guanosine residues located on the same RNA strand. Furthermore, in one of the complexes, the ligand is located between symmetry-related RNA molecules, exhibiting a molecular glue characteristics in crystal lattice formation. The comparison of RNA–NCD and ligand-free models allows the identification of structural changes in RNA upon ligand binding from A-form to Z-RNA-like form. These observations extend our understanding of the interactions between RNA and small compounds and can be useful as a reference model in the development of bioinformatics tools for RNA–ligand structure predictions. LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 C6 - pmid:40966516 DO - DOI:10.1093/nar/gkaf924 UR - https://bib-pubdb1.desy.de/record/639289 ER -