1',5'-ANHYDROHEXITOL OLIGONUCLEOTIDES - SYNTHESIS, BASE-PAIRING AND RECOGNITION BY REGULAR OLIGODEOXYRIBONUCLEOTIDES AND OLIGORIBONUCLEOTIDES

Oligonucleotides constructed of 1',5'-anhydrohexitol nucleoside buildi ng blocks (hexitol nucleic acids, HNA) are completely stable towards 3 '-exonuclease and form very stable self-complementary duplexes as well as sequence-selective stable duplexes with the natural DNA and RNA, T riple-helix formation has also been observed, These hybridisation char acteristics are highly dependent on the base sequence and the experime ntal conditions, When using a phosphate buffer containing 0.1M NaCl, a homopurine HNA dodecamer gives a Delta T-m of +1.3 degrees C/ base pa ir with DNA as complement and a Delta T-m of +3.0 degrees C/base pair with RNA as complement, These oligomers may therefore be of considerab le interest as antisense constructs.