Bromoacetophenone-based photonucleases: photoinduced cleavage of DNA by 4'-bromoacetophenone-pyrrolecarboxamide conjugates.

[formula: see text] 4'-Bromoacetophenone derivatives which upon excitation can generate monophenyl radicals capable of hydrogen atom abstraction were investigated as photoinducible DNA cleaving agents. Pyrrolecarboxamide-conjugated 4'-bromoacetophenones were synthesized, and their DNA cleaving activities and sequence selectivities were determined.