Electrostatic bonding of PEG molecules onto the backbone of DNA allows Watson–Crick base-pairing between individually PEGylated complementary strands resulting in a double helix with enhanced thermostability in salt-free aqueous medium.

The speed-up of covalent bond formation was achieved between a sulfhydryl group and a 2-bromopropionic acid derivative by utilizing sliding peptide-modified substrates. Moreover, a new type of DNA cleaving reagent was developed, consisting of pVIc covalently coupled to verteporfin. This peptide-porphyrin conjugate allowed targeting of DNA and resulted in increased photodegradation of double-stranded nucleic acids.

No abstract