Cu2+TerPy complexes as catalysts of the cleavage of the 5'-cap structure of mRNA

Cu(2+)TerPy is a fairly good catalyst of the cleavage of dinucleoside triphosphates, but its efficiency is not sufficient for use in artificial RNA cleaving enzymes. The present work is aimed at improving the catalysis by Cu(2+)TerPy with additional catalysts. Electrophilic and general acid catalysis have been studied and bifunctional catalysts have been synthesized. The most efficient catalysis was achieved with a Cu(2+)TerPy-dimer.

Preparation, hydrolysis and intramolecular transesterification of 3'-deoxy-3'-thioinosine 3'-S-dimethylphosphorothiolate

The hydrolytic reactions of the dimethyl ester of 3'-deoxy-3'-thioinosine 3'-S-phosphorothiolate have been followed over a wide aciditiy range by HPLC. At pH > 3, only hydroxide ion catalyzed isomerization to the 2'-dimethylphosphate takes place, whereas under more acidic conditions hydrolysis to the 2'-monomethylphosphate and 3'-S-monomethylphosphorothiolate competes. The latter is the only product accumulating in very acidic solutions (1 M hydrochloric acid). Mechanisms of the reactions are discussed.

Detection of oligonucleotide hybridization on a single microparticle by time-resolved fluorometry: quantitation and optimization of a sandwich type assay

Uniformly sized (50 micro m) porous glycidyl methacrylate/ethylene dimethacrylate particles (SINTEF) were used as the solid phase in a sandwich type mixed-phase hybridization assay based on time-resolved fluorescence detection on a single particle. These particles were coated with oligodeoxyribonucleotide probes by conventional phosphoramidite chain assembly. An oligodeoxyribonucleotide bearing a photoluminescent europium(III) chelate, ¿2,2',2",2"'-¿¿4'-¿4"'-[(4, 6-dichloro-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)amino]phenyl¿-2,2':6',2"-terpyrid ine-6, 6"-diyl¿bis(methylenenitrilo)¿tetrakis(acetato)¿eur opi um(III), was hybridized to a complementary sequence of the target oligonucleotide, and the resulting duplex was further hybridized to the particle-bound probes. The latter binding was quantified by time-resolved measurement of the emission signal of a single particle. Kinetics of hybridization and the effect of the concentration of the target oligomer and the fluorescently tagged probe on the efficiency of hybridization were studied. The intensity of the emission signal was linearly related to the concentration of the target oligomer over a range of 5 orders of magnitude. The length of the complementary region between the target oligomer and the particle-bound probe was varied, and the effect of point mutations and deletions on the hybridization efficiency was determined in each case. The maximal selectivity was observed with 10-16-base pair complementary sequences, the optimal length depending on the oligonucleotide loading on the particle. Discrimination between the complete matches and point mismatches was unequivocal, a single point mutation and/or deletion decreasing the efficiency of hybridization by more than 2 orders of magnitude.