title: Investigation of the 'n-1' impurity in phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides synthesized by the solid-phase beta-cyanoethyl phosphoramidite method using stepwise sulfurization.
abstract: Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) of reversed-phase HPLC-purified phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides (S-ODNs), and the single-('n - 1') and double-nucleotide deletion ('n - 2') impurities subsequently isolated from them by preparative polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), has provided direct analytical data for the identification of both S-ODN products and their major oligomeric impurities. The 'n - 1' impurity seen by PAGE consists of a mixture of all possible single deletion sequences relative to the parent S-ODN (n-mer) and results from repetitive, though minor, imperfections in the synthesis cycle, such as incomplete detritylation, or incomplete coupling followed by incomplete capping or incomplete sulfurization. Therefore each possible 'n - 1', 'n - 2', and other short-mer sequence is present only in very low abundance. The conversion of the gel-isolated 'n - 1' impurity from phosphorothioate to phosphodiester followed by base composition-dependent anion-exchange chromatography allowed for independent confirmation of its heterogeneity and quantitation of its various components. ESI-MS of both S-ODN products and their gel-isolated impurities allowed for this first molecular identification of 'n - 1', 'n - 2' and other oligomeric impurities in S-ODNs obtained from state-of-the-art solid-phase synthesis and reversed-phase HPLC purification methods.
authors.affiliation: Lynx Therapeutics, Inc., Hayward, CA 94545, USA.
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Fearon
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Stults
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Bergot
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Raible
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D002852:Chromatography, Ion Exchange; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008722:Methods; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D009943:Organophosphorus Compounds; D013873:Thionucleotides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D009943:Organophosphorus Compounds; D013873:Thionucleotides