Two general methods which exploit the reactivity of sulfhydryl groups toward maleimides are described for the synthesis of oligonucleotide-enzyme conjugates for use as nonradioisotopic hybridization probes. In the first approach, 6-maleimidohexanoic acid succinimido ester was used to couple 5'-thiolated oligonucleotide to calf intestine alkaline phosphatase to provide a 1:1 conjugate in 80-85% yield. The second strategy employed N,N'-1,2-phenylenedimaleimide to cross-link thiolated horseradish peroxidase or beta-galactosidase with a 5'-thiolated oligonucleotide in 58% and 65% yields, respectively. The oligonucleotide-alkaline phosphatase conjugate was able to detect 6 amol of target DNA in 4 h, while the horseradish peroxidase conjugate was found to be 40-fold lower in its sensitivity of detection by using dye precipitation assays.

Alkaline Phosphatase↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Synthesis of N-[6-(ethylenedioxy)hexyl]biotinamide: a biotinyl aldehyde precursor for labeling hydrazine-modified biomolecules.

Synthetic approaches for obtaining biotinyl aldehydes are described. While such aldehydes have limited shelflife, the acetal derivative, N-[6-(ethylenedioxy)hexyl]biotinamide, IX, was found to be indefinitely stable upon storage at -20 degrees C. Mild acid hydrolysis conveniently unmasks the aldehyde, which can then be used to label hydrazine-tagged biomolecules.

Biotin↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Bead-based sandwich hybridization characteristics of oligonucleotide-alkaline phosphatase conjugates and their potential for quantitating target RNA sequences.

The hybridization characteristics of oligonucleotide-alkaline phosphatase conjugate probes were examined in bead-based sandwich hybridization reactions using single-stranded nucleic acid targets and oligonucleotide-polystyrene capture beads. Enzymatic activity was monitored using a chemiluminescent substrate and calibration plots of chemiluminescent signal versus conjugate concentration were used to estimate the sandwich hybridization efficiencies. Improved hybridization behavior was noted using glycerol as an additive and by increasing the length of the probe and alkyl spacer of the conjugates. The chemiluminescent assay is at least as sensitive as those employing 32P-labeled probes and can detect as little as 10-20 amol of target RNA. The linear relationship of chemiluminescent signal versus target assayed provides a method for quantitating unknown target samples. A single human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infected cell in a background of 10(6) uninfected cells is facilely detected when this enzyme-based detection assay is prefaced with a self-sustained sequence-replication amplification reaction.

Alkaline Phosphatase↗