Effective and site-specific phosphoramidation reaction for universally labeling nucleic acids.

Here we report efficient and selective postsynthesis labeling strategies, based on an advanced phosphoramidation reaction, for nucleic acids of either synthetic or enzyme-catalyzed origin. The reactions provided phosphorimidazolide intermediates of DNA or RNA which, whether reacted in one pot (one-step) or purified (two-step), were directly or indirectly phosphoramidated with label molecules. The acquired fluorophore-labeled nucleic acids, prepared from the phosphoramidation reactions, demonstrated labeling efficacy by their F/N ratio values (number of fluorophores per molecule of nucleic acid) of 0.02-1.2 which are comparable or better than conventional postsynthesis fluorescent labeling methods for DNA and RNA. Yet, PCR and UV melting studies of the one-step phosphoramidation-prepared FITC-labeled DNA indicated that the reaction might facilitate nonspecific hybridization in nucleic acids. Intrinsic hybridization specificity of nucleic acids was, however, conserved in the two-step phosphoramidation reaction. The reaction of site-specific labeling nucleic acids at the 5'-end was supported by fluorescence quenching and UV melting studies of fluorophore-labeled DNA. The two-step phosphoramidation-based, effective, and site-specific labeling method has the potential to expedite critical research including visualization, quantification, structural determination, localization, and distribution of nucleic acids in vivo and in vitro.

Advanced aqueous-phase phosphoramidation reactions for effectively synthesizing peptide-oligonucleotide conjugates trafficked into a human cell line.

Peptide-oligonucleotide conjugates (POCs) have held promise as effective therapeutic agents in treating microbial infections and human genetic diseases including cancers. In clinical applications, POCs are especially useful to circumvent cellular delivery and specificity problems of oligonucleotides. We previously reported that nucleic acid phosphoramidation reactions performed in aqueous solutions have the potential for facile POC synthesis. Here, we carried out further studies to significantly improve aqueous-phase two-step phosphoramidation reaction yield. Optimized reactions were employed to effectively synthesize POCs for delivery into human A549 cells. We achieved optimization of aqueous-phase two-step phosphoramidation reaction and improved reaction yield by (1) determining appropriate co-solutes and co-solute concentrations to acquire higher reaction yields, (2) exploring a different nucleophilicity of imidazole and its derivatives to stabilize essential nucleic acid phosphorimidazolide intermediates prior to POC formation, and (3) enhancing POC synthesis by increasing reactant nucleophilicity. The advanced two-step phosphoramidation reaction was exploited to effectively conjugate a well-studied cell penetrating peptide, the Tat(48-57) peptide, with oligonucleotides, bridged by either no linkers or a disulfide-containing linker, to have the corresponding POC yields of 47-75%. Phosphoramidation-synthesized POCs showed no cytotoxicity to human A549 cells at studied POC concentrations after 24 h inoculation and were successfully trafficked into the human A549 cell line as demonstrated by flow cytometry, fluorescent microscopy, and confocal laser scanning microscopy study. The current report provides insight into aqueous-phase phosphoramidation reactions, the knowledge of which was used to develop effective strategies for synthesizing POCs with crucial applications including therapeutic agents for medicine.