化学修饰寡核苷酸在核酸配基扩增技术中的应用

核酸酸基扩增技术（SELEX)可从极大容量的随机寡核苷酸文库中筛选得到与靶分子高特异性和高亲和力结合的核酸配基。对寡核苷酸进行化学修饰,可以提高核酸配基的稳定性,增加其功能多样性及生物利用度。SELEX在基础研究、诊断和治疗试剂的研制及药物筛选等领域有广泛用途。     

生物信息技术在基因组和蛋白质组研究中的应用

综述了生物信息技术在生物学研究前沿领域,特别是基因组和蛋白质组研究方面的应用,重点展示生物信息技术在基因克隆与定位、核酸和蛋白质序列分析、空间结构预测和蛋白质功能研究方面的运用,丰富了生物技术概念的内涵并拓展了其外延。     

反义核酸的骨架修饰及其应用

反义核酸的发展经历了反义寡核苷酸,混合骨架寡核苷酸和多肽核酸等几个阶段。这３种不同类型的反义核酸均能与ＤＮＡ或ＲＮＡ结合,阻断目的基因的表达。３种反义核酸的结构有较大差异,各自的性质和反义作用机理也不尽相同。尽管作用机制还不十分明确,反义核酸已广泛应用于生物学和医学等领域,作为反义药物用于治疗癌症等疾病,或作为试剂研究生物大分子的功能。     

病毒核酸和蛋白分析的原理

<正> 病毒是由核酸和蛋白质两种基本成份所构成的一类最简单的特殊生物。它们严格地寄生于细胞内,以基因复制的方式进行繁殖。因而又有“分子生物”或“寄生分子”之称。 病毒学作为一门相对独立学科的历史还不到40年,进展却比较迅速。这与现代分子生物学方法的运用是分不开的。由于核酸和蛋白是病毒的主要功能成份,所以,在病毒学研究中,对核酸和蛋白的分析显得特别重要。病毒学的各个研究领域都涉及病毒核酸和蛋白的分析。     

蛋白质/核酸相互作用研究方法进展

蛋白质和核酸是构成生命体最为重要的两类生物大分子,蛋白质与核酸的相互作用是分子生物学研究的中心问题之一,它是许多生命活动的重要组成部分。研究蛋白质/核酸相互作用近期采用的新技术有:核酸适体技术、生物信息学方法、蛋白质芯片技术以及纳米技术等。本文就这些新的研究方法进行综述。     

适配体结合蛋白质靶标的亲和力表征方法及其在疾病诊断中的应用

核酸适配体是通过体外指数富集配体系统进化（SELEX）技术筛选获得,并能够和蛋白质靶标高特异性、高亲和力结合的单链寡核苷酸。核酸适配体不但具有抗体的识别特性,而且具有自己独特的优良性能,目前已应用于分析检验、食品安全和生物医药等各个领域。蛋白质具有多种多样的生物功能以及临床诊断价值。因此,核酸适配体针对蛋白质靶标并在蛋白质相关的基础研究领域受到广泛的关注。核酸适配体应用性能的优劣取决于与其靶标蛋白质的亲和力与特异性。本文主要综述核酸适配体对蛋白质靶标的亲和力表征方法,以及在药物研发、肿瘤检测、生物成像以及生物传感器方面的应用。     

基于CRISPR/Cas系统的核酸生物传感器

近年来,CRISPR/Cas系统已经成为转录调控和基因组编辑的重要工具。除了在基因编辑领域的贡献,CRISPR/Cas系统独特的靶核酸顺式切割和非特异性单链核酸反式切割能力,在开发核酸检测的新型生物传感器方面展现出巨大潜力。构建基于CRISPR/Cas系统高灵敏度生物传感器的关键通常依赖其与不同信号扩增策略,诸如核酸扩增技术或特定信号转导方法的结合。基于此,本文旨在通过介绍不同类型的CRISPR/Cas系统,全面概述基于该系统的核酸检测生物传感器的研究进展,并重点对结合核酸扩增技术（PCR、LAMP、RCA、RPA和EXPAR）、灵敏的信号转导方法（电化学和表面增强拉曼光谱）和特殊结构设计生物传感的三大类型信号放大策略的CRISPR/Cas生物传感器进行总结和评论。最后,本文对目前的挑战以及未来的前景进行展望。     

FEN1酶介导的功能核酸生物传感器的研究进展

瓣状核酸内切酶-1(Flap endonuclease 1,FEN1)是一种可以识别三碱基重叠结构(三核酸)并对其进行切割,释放出5’-flap片段的结构特异性酶,并且有着高效稳定的切割效率。基于此种特性,通过不同的信号输出方式,FEN1酶现被用于DNA、RNA、病毒等放大检测中。首先对FEN1酶的发现、性质以及作用方面做了相应介绍,然后根据所检测的靶物质不同,对FEN1酶所介导的生物传感器进行分类,主要包括对单核苷酸多态性的检测、甲基化检测、基因型检测、RNA检测、病毒检测、肿瘤检测和微生物检测等。此外,对FEN1酶与纳米材料的结合以及体内表征及治疗也进行了较为详细的介绍。同时,还对传感器之间的原理、灵敏度、特异性及适用领域等方面进行比较和优缺点的简单评价。最后,对FEN1酶所介导的生物传感器的中存在的不足,以及未来的发展方向进行了展望,旨在为今后研发更便携、更灵敏、更准确的FEN1功能核酸生物传感器提供理论参考。     

多重核酸检测技术研究进展

核酸检测技术因其快速、灵敏、特异、准确等优点,被广泛应用于细菌、真菌、病毒、寄生虫的快速检测和鉴定,以及疾病的早期筛查与诊断中。随着生物检测技术的发展,基于核酸的多重检测技术在核酸诊断领域发挥了越来越重要的作用,主要包括以多重PCR、核酸等温扩增、基因芯片为基础的多重核酸检测技术,这些技术可对多个靶标进行同时检测,具有快速、高通量、样品消耗少等特点。本文扼要介绍这些技术的原理,及其在病原检测、疾病诊断等方面的应用。     

从核酸消化及核苷酸代谢看核酸营养品

核酸是由多个核苷酸构成的生物大分子,是遗传的物质基础,在生命活动中起着不可替代的作用。那么核酸是否需要外源性补充？核酸营养品有没有作用？从核酸消化、核苷酸代谢角度就这些问题进行探讨。     

Proteins involved in binding and cellular uptake of nucleic acids

The study of mechanisms of nucleic acid transport across the cell membrane is valuable both for understanding the biological function of extracellular nucleic acids and the practical use of nucleic acids in gene therapy. It has been clearly demonstrated that cell surface proteins are necessary for transport of nucleic acids into cells. A large amount of data has now been accumulated about the proteins that participate in nucleic acid transport. The methods for revealing and identification of these proteins, possible mechanisms of protein-mediated transport of nucleic acids, and cellular functions of these proteins are described.     

功能核酸DNA水凝胶的制备与组装

功能核酸DNA水凝胶是一种以DNA为构建单元通过化学反应或物理缠结自组装而成的新型柔性材料,其构建单元中包含1种或多种能够形成功能核酸的特定序列。功能核酸是通过碱基修饰和DNA分子之间的相互作用力组合的一类特定核酸结构,包括核酸适配体、DNA核酶、G-四联体(G-quadruplex,G4)和i-motif结构等。传统上,高浓度的长DNA链是制备DNA水凝胶的必要条件,而核酸扩增方法的引入为DNA水凝胶的组装方式提供了新的可能。因此,对常用于制备DNA水凝胶的多种功能核酸以及核酸的提取、合成和扩增手段进行了详细的介绍。在此基础上,综述了通过化学或物理交联方式组装功能核酸DNA水凝胶的制备方法。最后,提出了DNA纳米材料的组装所面临的挑战和潜在的发展方向,以期为开发高效组装的功能核酸DNA水凝胶提供参考。     

LNA-modified oligonucleotides effectively drive intramolecular-stable hairpin to intermolecular-duplex state

Sequence-specific hybridization of antisense and antigene agent to the target nucleic acid is an important therapeutic strategy to modulate gene expression. However, efficiency of such agents falls due to inherent intramolecular-secondary-structures present in the target that pose competition to intermolecular hybridization by complementary antisense/antigene agent. Performance of these agents can be improved by employing structurally modified complementary oligonucleotides that efficiently hybridize to the target and force it to transit from an intramolecular-structured-state to an intermolecular-duplex state. In this study, the potential of variably substituted locked nucleic acid-modified oligonucleotides (8mer) to hybridize and disrupt highly stable, secondary structure of nucleic acid has been biophysically characterized and compared with the conventionally used unmodified DNA oligonucleotides. The target here is a stem-loop hairpin oligonucleotide-a structure commonly present in most structured-nucleic acids and known to exhibit an array of biological functions. Using fluorescence-based studies and EMSA we prove that LNA-modified oligonucleotides hybridize to the target hairpin with higher binding affinity even at lower concentration and subsequently, force it to assume a duplex conformation. LNA-modified oligonucleotides may thus, prove as potential therapeutic candidates to manipulate gene expression by disruption of biologically relevant nucleic acid secondary structure.     

Cellular nucleic acid binding protein binds G-rich single-stranded nucleic acids and may function as a nucleic acid chaperone

Cellular nucleic acid binding protein (CNBP) is a small single-stranded nucleic acid binding protein made of seven Zn knuckles and an Arg-Gly rich box. CNBP is strikingly conserved among vertebrates and was reported to play broad-spectrum functions in eukaryotic cells biology. Neither its biological function nor its mechanisms of action were elucidated yet. The main goal of this work was to gain further insights into the CNBP biochemical and molecular features. We studied Bufo arenarum CNBP (bCNBP) binding to single-stranded nucleic acid probes representing the main reported CNBP putative targets. We report that, although bCNBP is able to bind RNA and single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) probes in vitro, it binds RNA as a preformed dimer whereas both monomer and dimer are able to bind to ssDNA. A systematic analysis of variant probes shows that the preferred bCNBP targets contain unpaired guanosine-rich stretches. These data expand the knowledge about CNBP binding stoichiometry and begins to dissect the main features of CNBP nucleic acid targets. Besides, we show that bCNBP presents a highly disordered predicted structure and promotes the annealing and melting of nucleic acids in vitro. These features are typical of proteins that function as nucleic acid chaperones. Based on these data, we propose that CNBP may function as a nucleic acid chaperone through binding, remodeling, and stabilizing nucleic acids secondary structures. This novel CNBP biochemical activity broadens the field of study about its biological function and may be the basis to understand the diverse ways in which CNBP controls gene expression.     

Modeling protein–nucleic acid complexes with extremely large conformational changes using Flex-LZerD

Proteins and nucleic acids are key components in many processes in living cells, and interactions between proteins and nucleic acids are often crucial pathway components. In many cases, large flexibility of proteins as they interact with nucleic acids is key to their function. To understand the mechanisms of these processes, it is necessary to consider the 3D atomic structures of such protein–nucleic acid complexes. When such structures are not yet experimentally determined, protein docking can be used to computationally generate useful structure models. However, such docking has long had the limitation that the consideration of flexibility is usually limited to small movements or to small structures. We previously developed a method of flexible protein docking which could model ordered proteins which undergo large-scale conformational changes, which we also showed was compatible with nucleic acids. Here, we elaborate on the ability of that pipeline, Flex-LZerD, to model specifically interactions between proteins and nucleic acids, and demonstrate that Flex-LZerD can model more interactions and types of conformational change than previously shown.     

14种蜂花粉的DNA和RNA分析

本文使用紫外光吸收法,分析了芝麻、葵花、泡桐等１４种蜂花粉中核酸（ＤＮＡ和ＲＮＡ）的含量,以进一步探讨花粉的抗衰老作用。结果说明不论那一种花粉,均含有丰富的核酸,但种类不同的花粉其中核酸的含量是不完全相同的。     

绿豆子叶衰老期间核酸代谢的变化

萌发绿豆的子叶自然衰老期间,核酸含量降低,RNA降低的幅度比DNA大。电泳分析结果表明,子叶衰老期间细胞核主带DNA明显降低;而迁移慢的卫星带DNA变化不大。在RNA各组分中,18S rRNA从衰老前期就开始降低;25S rRNA和4～5S小分子RNA到衰老后期才缓慢下降。DNase和RNase活性在子叶整个衰老期间都明显升高,是导致核酸含量下降的主要原因。~3H-核苷掺入试验表明,核酸的合成速率在子叶衰老前期有所上升,到衰老后期又降低。poly(A)~ -mRNA含量在子叶开始衰老时明显上升。     

PrPC has nucleic acid chaperoning properties similar to the nucleocapsid protein of HIV-1

The function of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) remains obscure. Studies suggest that PrPC functions in several processes including signal transduction and Cu2+ metabolism. PrPC has also been established to bind nucleic acids. Therefore we investigated the properties of PrPC as a putative nucleic acid chaperone. Surprisingly, PrPC possesses all the nucleic acid chaperoning properties previously specific to retroviral nucleocapsid proteins. PrPC appears to be a molecular mimic of NCP7, the nucleocapsid protein of HIV-1. Thus PrPC, like NCP7, chaperones the annealing of tRNA(Lys) to the HIV-1 primer binding site, the initial step of retrovirus replication. PrPC also chaperones the two DNA strand transfers required for production of a complete proviral DNA with LTRs. Concerning the functions of NCP7 during budding, PrPC also mimices NCP7 by dimerizing the HIV-1 genomic RNA. These data are unprecedented because, although many cellular proteins have been identified as nucleic acid chaperones, none have the properties of retroviral nucleocapsid proteins.     

The improved method in agarose gel electrophoresis of nucleic acid

In most molecular experiments, nucleic acids are subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis to determine the size of the molecule. The addition of a nucleic acid dye allows the nucleic acid to be detected under the UV image system after running the gel, so the nucleic acid dye is an integral part of the electrophoresis experiment. But when considering the mutagenicity and toxicity of nucleic acid dyes, one must be careful to insure the proper disposal of experimental waste. In this article, a new usage of nucleic acid dye in agarose gel electrophoresis is described where the nucleic acid dyes were added to the loading buffer and nucleic acid marker buffer. The results show that this method has advantages as: a smaller amount of dye can be used, there is less time in contact with the dye, and its operation is easier and reduces toxicity damage. Also the bands showed a much clearer image, having a lower background value. The improved method shows better results with lower toxicity and is superior to the traditional method.