ABSTRACTcis-Diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (cisplatin) is a widely used anticancer drug that binds to and crosslinks DNA. The major DNA adduct of the drug results from coordination of two adjacent guanine bases to platinum to form the intrastrand crosslink cis-[Pt(NH3)2{d(GpG)-N7(1), -N7(2)}] (cis-Pt-GG). In the present study, spectroscopic and calorimetric techniques were employed to characterize the influence of this crosslink on the conformation, thermal stability, and energetics of a site-specifically platinated 20-mer DNA duplex. CD spectroscopic and thermal denaturation data revealed that the crosslink alters the structure of the host duplex, consistent with a shift from a B-like to an A-like conformation; lowers its thermal stability by -9°C; and reduces its thermodynamic stability by 6.3 kcal/mol at 25°C, most of which is enthalpic in origin; but it does not alter the two-state melting behavior exhibited by the parent, unmodified duplex, despite the significant crosslinkinduced changes noted above. The energetic consequences of the cis-Pt-GG crosslink are discussed in relation to the structural perturbations it induces in DNA and to how these crosslinkinduced perturbations might modulate protein binding.The chemotherapeutic efficacy of the anticancer drug cisplatin is derived from its ability to bind and crosslink DNA, the major adduct being the cis-Pt-GG intrastrand crosslink (1). Previous crystallographic, NMR, and gel electrophoretic investigations have evaluated the impact of this crosslink on the structure and conformation of the host duplex (1-9). These studies indicate that formation of the cis-Pt-GG crosslink unwinds DNA by 130and bends it by 34-55°in the direction of the major groove. Avery recent crystallographic study revealed that the crosslink can induce formation of an A-form structural subdomain, thereby creating a hybrid DNA duplex with an A-B junction (8). Such cis-Pt-GG-induced alterations in duplex structure have been implicated in the promotion of specific interactions with cellular proteins that contain one or more high mobility group domainsfor example, HMG1, Ixrl, and human upstream-binding factor (hUBF) (8,(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15). When bound by such cellular proteins, the cis-Pt-GG sites are shielded from excision repair (11,13,16,17), thereby enhancing the cytotoxic properties of the drug. Unlike the detailed structural information about the major cisplatin-DNA adduct, comparatively little is known about its corresponding energetic consequences. Such thermodynamic data would reveal how the crosslink influences duplex stability, a property that has been implicated in the modulation of protein recognition and binding (18)(19)(20). To address this deficiency, we have used a combination of calorimetric and spectroscopic techniques to characterize the effect of a single cis-Pt-GG intrastrand crosslink on the conformation, thermal stability, and energetics of a 20-mer DNA duplex. The sequences of unmodified (GG20) and modified (cis-Pt-GG20) duplexes examined are depicted in Fig. 1. Inve...