REACTIVE POLYMERS IN DIAGNOSTICS - SYNTHESES AND CHARACTERIZATIONS OFNUCLEIC-ACID PROBES AND MALEIC ANHYDRIDE-CO-METHYL VINYL ETHER POLYMERS

Maleic anhydride-co-methyl vinyl ether copolymers were used as reactiv e polymers to link oligodeoxyribonucleotides (ODN) to make oligonucleo tide-copolymer conjugates of potential applications in diagnostics. Th e anhydride moieties of the copolymers were used for the covalent bind ing, via the formation of a peptide bond, on reaction with DNA probes that were amino modified at the 5' position. The best coupling yields were obtained by carrying out the reaction in a DMSO-borate buffer (95 /5 volume ratio) mixture at high ionic strength. Copolymers and ODN-co polymer conjugates were characterized by size exclusion chromatography and multiangle laser light scattering detection. The average molecula r weights of the formed conjugates were relatively high, in the 10(6) g/mol range, resulting from the crosslinking of several copolymer mole cules during coupling. Coupling DNA probes onto smaller molecular weig ht polymers did not result in the formation of very high molecular wei ght conjugates showing that copolymer chain interpenetration was a det ermining factor of the crosslinking process that occurs during the cou pling reaction. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.