The increasing incidence of pathogens and drug resistance has become major threat in the current arena. Hence, there is a need for the development of alternative therapeutic target to combat increase in resistance problem other than the cell membrane. Besides DNA, recently RNA has been recognized as a central target site for drug design. Group I intron RNA is a unique class of RNA molecule that undergoes self-catalytic activity due to its unique folded structure that catalyze number of cellular reactions. Recently, in vitro studies have shown that the folded structure of group I intron RNA could be a potential target site for therapeutic agents. Its presence in human pathogen like Candida albicans and absence in humans, suggests that the intron could act as an alternative therapeutic target. Therefore, our interest has been to explore the RNA binding activity of dietary compounds resveratrol and genistein. The binding efficacy of resveratrol and genistein (P/D ratio?s ? 11.76, 4.71, 2.35, 1.17, 0.58) to group I intron RNA transcript and circular-intervening sequences (C-IVS) of Tetrahymena thermophila and the binding efficacy of resveratrol and genistein (P/D ratio?s ? 2.35, 1.17, 0.58, 0.29) to 25S rRNA of C. albicans is measured by quantification of the RNA using densitometric method. This suggests that these natural compounds might bind with intron RNA and acts as an potential target and modulates the cellular process during therapeutic intervention.

Key words: RNA transcript; Group I intron; Resveratrol; Genistein.