Molecules 2012, 17(9), 11026-11045; doi:10.3390/molecules170911026
Article

Synthesis and Chromatography-Free Purification of PNA-PEO Conjugates for the Functionalisation of Gold Sensors

Monica Dettin 1 email, Davide Silvestri 2 email, Roberta Danesin 1 email, Erica Cretaio 3 email, Gianluca Picariello 4 email, Elisabetta Casarin 2 email, Agnese Sonato 5 email, Filippo Romanato 5 email and Margherita Morpurgo 2,* email
1 Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, via Marzolo, 9, 35131 Padova, Italy 2 Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmacology, University of Padova, via Marzolo, 5, 35131 Padova, Italy 3 Inter-University Consortium of Veneto for Nanotechnology (CIVEN), via delle Industrie, 5, 30174 Venezia, Italy 4 Institute of Food Sciences, CNR, via Roma, 64, 83100 Avellino, Italy 5 Physics Department, University of Padova, via Marzolo, 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 1 June 2012; in revised form: 30 August 2012 / Accepted: 31 August 2012 / Published: 13 September 2012
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nucleic Acid Analogs)
PDF Full-text Download PDF Full-Text [851 KB, uploaded 13 September 2012 10:46 CEST]
Abstract: Peptide Nucleic Acids (PNAs) linked to high molecular weight (MW) poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) derivatives could be useful conjugates for the direct functionalisation of gold surfaces dedicated to Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR)-based DNA sensing. However their use is hampered by the difficulty to obtain them through a convenient and economical route. In this work we compared three synthetic strategies to obtain PNA-high MW PEO conjugates composed of (a) a 15-mer PNA sequence as the probe complementary to genomic DNA of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, (b) a PEO moiety (2 or 5 KDa MW) and (c) a terminal trityl-protected thiol necessary (after acidic deprotection) for grafting to gold surfaces. The 15-mer PNA was obtained by solid-phase synthesis. Its amino terminal group was later condensed to bi-functional PEO derivatives (2 and 5 KDa MW) carrying a Trt-cysteine at one end and a carboxyl group at the other end. The reaction was carried out either in solution, using HATU or PyOxim as coupling agents, or through the solid-phase approach, with 49.6%, 100% and 5.2% yield, respectively. A differential solvent extraction strategy for product purification without the need for chromatography is described. The ability of the 5 KDa PEO conjugate to function as a probe for complementary DNA detection was demonstrated using a Grating-Coupling Surface Plasmon Resonance (GC-SPR) system. The optimized PEO conjugation and purification protocols are economical and simple enough to be reproduced also within laboratories that are not highly equipped for chemical synthesis.
Keywords: PEG; PEO; PNA; PNA-conjugate; surface plasmon resonance

Supplementary Files

Article Statistics

Click here to load and display the download statistics.

Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Dettin, M.; Silvestri, D.; Danesin, R.; Cretaio, E.; Picariello, G.; Casarin, E.; Sonato, A.; Romanato, F.; Morpurgo, M. Synthesis and Chromatography-Free Purification of PNA-PEO Conjugates for the Functionalisation of Gold Sensors. Molecules 2012, 17, 11026-11045.

AMA Style

Dettin M, Silvestri D, Danesin R, Cretaio E, Picariello G, Casarin E, Sonato A, Romanato F, Morpurgo M. Synthesis and Chromatography-Free Purification of PNA-PEO Conjugates for the Functionalisation of Gold Sensors. Molecules. 2012; 17(9):11026-11045.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Dettin, Monica; Silvestri, Davide; Danesin, Roberta; Cretaio, Erica; Picariello, Gianluca; Casarin, Elisabetta; Sonato, Agnese; Romanato, Filippo; Morpurgo, Margherita. 2012. "Synthesis and Chromatography-Free Purification of PNA-PEO Conjugates for the Functionalisation of Gold Sensors." Molecules 17, no. 9: 11026-11045.

Molecules EISSN 1420-3049 Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland RSS E-Mail Table of Contents Alert