[ottonis]

hi all,

I hope somebody can help me out on this.
there are quite some studies on 6-methyluracil showing some positive effects (DNA-stabilizing, improves wound healing etc.).

However, it is absolutely not clear to me, how 6-MU works: does it work by being incorporated into DNA as a substitute for thymine (=5-methyluracil) or by doing something diffrent outside the DNA?

I have thoroughly looked into the chemical strucure of 5-MU and 6-MU and it appears to me that 6-MU actually could easily create a base pair with adenine.

However, at the same time it appears that it might be very difficult for the molcule to simultaneously bind to the deoxyribose molecule with its second NH-group. it looks like this would really "torque" the whole molecule.

Can somebody please help me to understand whether it is possible for 6-MU to be incorporated into DNA or not.

Thanks a lot in advance!