TITLE:
Phosphate-Methylated Oligonucleotides Past, Present and Future
AUTHORS:
Henk M. Buck
KEYWORDS:
Anti Sense Oligonucleotides (ASOs), Phosphate-Methylated DNA and RNA, HIV, COVID-19, Neurological Diseases, PCR, Gene Chip
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biophysical Chemistry,
Vol.11 No.3,
August
7,
2020
ABSTRACT: At the moment, we see a great interest for application of Anti Sense Oligonucleotides (ASOs) in order to regulate the
expression of genes related to certain diseases. These nucleotides obtained a number
of fascinating properties by means of chemical manipulation of natural DNA and
RNA under conservation of Watson-Crick base-pairing. About 35 years ago for our
research in this field, we selected synthetically (short) phosphate-methylated DNA and RNA. It was concluded that there is an exclusive selection in
hybridization affinity with natural DNA and RNA. These (bio)chemical and
physical-chemical properties are extensively published. ASOs have found their way in public health as is clearly shown in the
treatment of (progressive) neurological diseases. We focus specifically
on the past, present and future of the phosphate-methylated
oligonucleotides, illustrated with different research studies in chemistry and biophysics. A new field of
application of modified DNAs is based on interactive improvements of
sensitivity and specificity of nanowire field effect transistor gene chip by
designing phosphate-methylated DNA as probe.