Figure 1.

 Target sequence and structure of synthetic PI polyamide that targets the human matrix metalloproteinase (MMP‐9) promoter. (a) The polyamide was designed to bind to the human MMP‐9 promoter adjacent to the activator protein 1 (AP‐1) binding site (−70 to −77) (left). Mismatch polyamide was designed not to bind the transcription‐binding sites of the promoter (right). (b) Structure of the human MMP‐9‐specific pyrrole‐imidazole (PI) polyamide (upper), the FITC‐labeled human MMP‐9‐specific PI polyamide (middle), and mismatch PI polyamide (lower). Polyamide was synthesized by a solid‐phase method and purified by HPLC (0.1% AcOH/CH₃CN 0 to 66% linear gradient, 0 to 20 min, 254 nm, through a Chemcobond 5‐ODS‐H column).