Facile cleavage of RNAs by oligoamines. Correlation between amine structure and catalytic activity.

: Oligoamines such as ethylenediamine and diethylenetriamine exhibit remarkable catalysis for the hydrolysis of RNAs. Methyl substitution of ethylenediamine at the nitrogen atoms causes virtually no effect on the catalytic activity, indicating that attachment of the oligoamines to sequence-recognizing moiety provides superb artificial ribonuclease.