In this study, we assessed the cytotoxic effect of 1,3-diphenyl-2-allyl-1,3-propanedione (DPAP) on B16F10 and Tm5 melanoma cells and investigated its interaction with DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) using optical tweezers. The compound showed to be effective against B16F10 cells with selectivity index (SI) of 7.92 and interaction to the outer surface of the double helix, probably at the minor groove of DNA. This likely induced a bending deformation of the polymer chain, decreasing persistence length, and indicated that each DPAP molecule occupies a single base pair upon binding to the double helix.

Abstract Due to the limited coding capacity of viral genomes, plant viruses depend extensively on the host cell machinery to support the viral life cycle and, thereby, interact with a large number of host proteins during infection. Within this context, as plant viruses do not harbor translation-required components, they have developed several strategies to subvert the host protein synthesis machinery to produce rapidly and efficiently the viral proteins. As a countermeasure against infection, plants have evolved defense mechanisms that impair viral infections. Among them, the host-mediated translational suppression has been characterized as an efficient mean to restrict infection. To specifically suppress translation of viral mRNAs, plants can deploy susceptible recessive resistance genes, which encode translation initiation factors from the eIF4E and eIF4G family and are required for viral mRNA translation and multiplication. Additionally, recent evidence has demonstrated that, alternatively to the cleavage of viral RNA targets, host cells can suppress viral protein translation to silence viral RNA. Finally, a novel strategy of plant antiviral defense based on suppression of host global translation, which is mediated by the transmembrane immune receptor NIK1 (nuclear shuttle protein (NSP)-Interacting Kinase1), is discussed in this review.