119th General Meeting of the KCS

Type Poster Presentation
Area 재료화학
Room No. 포스터발표장
Time 4월 21일 (금요일) 13:00~14:30
Code MAT.P-335
Subject Roles of Small Organic Molecules in Stabilizing Spherical Nucleic Acids (SNAs)
Authors 김윤혁, 오주환, 이재승*
고려대학교 신소재공학부, Korea
Abstract Spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) have been intensively investigated owing to their unique chemical and physical properties such as programmable assembly, high binding affinity, and multifunctionality. In particular, SNAs have been widely utilized as smart probes for detecting a variety of targets with higher sensitivity and selectivity than conventional detection systems. Owing to the nature of the nucleic acids including their ability to form hydrogen bonding, however, the target-binding properties of the SNA probes are unexpectedly, yet sensitively affected by a change in pH of reaction mixtures. Although the pH of the reaction mixtures could be maintained to be almost consistent under buffer conditions, the failure of maintaining the same pH leads to a significant change in binding properties of SNAs. To address this issue, we have investigated the fundamental interactions of SNAs with pyridine and its derivatives, and report that, in fact, just the pH increase induced by pyridine is practically the only parameter accounting for pyridine’s DNA-stabilizing effects under acidic conditions. Importantly, we prove that pyridine does not increase the Tm of hybridized SNAs even under acidic conditions, if the pH increase by pyridine is corrected to maintain the same initial pH.
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