Polymeric nucleic acid hybridization probes
First Claim
1. A single-stranded polymeric probe comprising multiple copies of one or more sequences of single-stranded nucleic acid (monomers), which are joined together, wherein;
- the monomers are at least 6 nucleotides in length;
the monomers are joined either directly end-to-end or to opposite ends of a molecular linker that may or may not include other monomers with a different sequence;
said polymeric probe contains at least 4 copies of said monomer; and
said polymeric probe has at least one probe sequence that is known to be complementary either to a potential sequence in a target nucleic acid, to a positive control sequence in the nucleic acid, or to a negative control sequence that is absent in the target nucleic acid.
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Abstract
A novel polymeric nucleic acid probe improves detection sensitivity and specificity in a variety of hybridization platforms. The probe is made up of multiple short nucleic acid sequences (referred to as monomers) attached together to form a long polymeric probe for use in hybridization applications. For applications requiring immobilization of the probes to a surface, the polymeric probes are similar to long DNA probes in that they can be immobilized to a variety of surfaces without need for a chemical modification to the end of the probe. Because target nucleic acids hybridize to the relatively short monomers in the polymeric probe, the polymeric probes are more specific than long DNA probes. In addition, polymeric probes also improve the signal-to-background ratio by increasing the number of accessible monomer oligonucleotide probes immobilized per unit area on a surface.
83 Citations
38 Claims
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1. A single-stranded polymeric probe comprising multiple copies of one or more sequences of single-stranded nucleic acid (monomers), which are joined together, wherein;
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the monomers are at least 6 nucleotides in length;
the monomers are joined either directly end-to-end or to opposite ends of a molecular linker that may or may not include other monomers with a different sequence;
said polymeric probe contains at least 4 copies of said monomer; and
said polymeric probe has at least one probe sequence that is known to be complementary either to a potential sequence in a target nucleic acid, to a positive control sequence in the nucleic acid, or to a negative control sequence that is absent in the target nucleic acid. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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Specification