Nucleic acid analogues with a chelating functionality for metal ions

摘要

A nucleic acid analogue comprises a polymeric strand including a sequence of ligands bound to a backbone made up of linked backbone moieties and has a moiety capable of binding at least one metal ion by chelation. The analogue is capable of hybridisation to a nucleic acid of complementary sequence. A solution of the analogue may readily be concentrated by capturing the analogue from solution on to a solid support having chelatable metal ions or may readily be labelled by a label comprising a chelatable metal ion as a label or having a label linked to a chelatable metal ion. The backbone may comprise a polyamide, polythioamide, polysulphinamide or polysulphonamide, preferably poly(amino acid) The chelator is preferably an amino acid, oligopeptide (especially (His)5) or polycarboxylic acid (especially EDTA).