What are the applications of oligonucleotides?

The application of oligonucleotides includes the following aspects:

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR): Oligonucleotides act as primers to initiate enzymatic reactions that generate millions to billions of copies of short or long target sequences

Gene editing: Oligonucleotides can be used in gene editing technologies such as the CRISPR-Cas9 system to precisely cut and modify DNA sequences.

DNA sequencing: Oligonucleotide probes are used to identify and bind specific DNA or RNA target sequences, confirming the presence of a sequence in a specific sample.

Gene therapy: Oligonucleotides can be designed as molecules that regulate gene expression, such as antisense oligonucleotides that suppress the expression of harmful genes and small interfering RNAs that induce the silencing of specific genes.

Disease diagnosis: Through the principle of base complementarity pairing, oligonucleotide probes can specifically bind to target nucleic acid sequences for use in disease diagnosis, genetic screening, and other fields.

Drug development: Oligonucleotide drugs are highly specific and selective, capable of targeting targets that are difficult to achieve, providing an opportunity for the development of new therapeutic drugs.

Biochip technology: Oligonucleotides immobilized on a chip are used to detect multiple genes or biomarkers in parallel on a large scale.

Solid-phase synthesis was invented by Robert Bruce Merrifield in the 1960s, and its importance earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1984.

The specific steps of the solid-phase synthesis method include:

Synthetic chain initiation: Linking a protective group, usually an amino acid or peptide, to a solid support.

Stepwise synthesis: In each synthetic step, an amino acid or peptide is added, followed by a deprotection and coupling reaction. This process is repeated until the desired sequence length is reached.

Cutting and purification: After the synthesis is completed, the synthesized peptide chain is cleaved from the solid phase carrier and purified and analyzed.

Solid-phase synthesis is not limited to oligonucleotide synthesis, but also widely used in peptide synthesis, oligosaccharide synthesis and combinatorial chemistry.