Nucleic acids basic principles

Based on the similarity of formalin-induced chemical modification between nucleic acids and proteins, the efficiency of heating protocols for DNA/RNA extraction has been demonstrated (see Chapter 3 for detail). Basic AR principle including heating condition and pH value of AR solution as well as certain chemicals may play roles to establish optimal protocols. 

Brown, D.M. (1974) Chemical reactions of polynucleotides and nucleic acids. In Basic Principles in Nucleic Acid Chemistry (P.O.P. Ts O ed.), Vol. 2, pp. 1-90. Academic Press, New York. 

Nuclei were first isolated by Miescher (1869) from pus cells recovered from discarded surgical bandages. The principle constituent—a phosphorus-rich material then called nuclein—was stained by methyl green. A few years later salmon sperm were shown to contain a phosphorus-rich acidic compound—the nucleic acid—and a basic protein protamine. Further work by Kossel, Levene,... 

Source Opalinska JB, Gewirtz AM. Nucleic-acid therapeutics basic principles and recent applications, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 1 503-514 (2002). 

Gueron M, Eisinger B, Lamola AA (1974) Excited states of nucleic acids. In Ts o POP (ed) Basic principles in nucleic acid chemistry, vol 1. Academic, New York, p 312... 

The book is divided into several chapters which include micromachining methods, microfluidic operations (microfluidic flow, sample introduction, sample preconcentration), chemical separations, detection technology, and various chemical and biochemical analysis (applications on cellular analysis, nucleic acid analysis, and protein analysis). Emphasis will be placed on analytical applications although the basic principles about micromachining and fluid flow and control will also be covered only to the extent that their understanding will assist the exploitation of the microfluidic technology on analytical applications. 

Molecular modelers thus put such quantitative work aside for a while. These molecular modelers were a new breed of theoretical chemist specializing in large biological molecules, especially proteins and nucleic acids. They worked at first with non-digital calculators. Such calculators would be used up to the early 1960s in laboratories like that of Gopalasamudram Ramachandran in India, who founded a major school of protein molecular modeling and elucidated the basic principles of stereochemistry about how proteins adopt their shapes. 

Opalinska JB, Gewirtz AM Nucleic-acid therapeutics Basic principles and recent applications, Nat Rev Drug Disc 2002, 1, 503-514. 

In this chapter we first summarize the basics needed to consider the interactions of metal ions and complexes with nucleic acids. What are the structures of nucleic acids What is the basic repertoire of modes of association and chemical reactions that occur between coordination complexes and polynucleotides We then consider in some detail the interaction of a simple family of coordination complexes, the tris(phenanthroline) metal complexes, with DNA and RNA to illustrate the techniques, questions, and applications of metal/nucleic-acid chemistry that are currently being explored. In this section, the focus on tris(phenanthroline) complexes serves as a springboard to compare and contrast studies of other, more intricately designed transition-metal complexes (in the next section) with nucleic acids. Last we consider how Nature uses metal ions and complexes in carrying out nucleic-acid chemistry. Here the principles, techniques, and fundamental coordination chemistry of metals with nucleic acids provide the foundation for our current understanding of how these fascinating and complex bioinorganic systems may function. 

SPR is a representative physical phenomenon that is widely utilized for label-free characterization of molecules on thin metal films. The basic principle and operation of SPR has been described in more detail in several review articles [77, 78]. The reports on SPR-based immune sensors have steeply increased for detection of analytes with low molecular weights in recent years. SPR detection in microfluidic systems can provide various advantages. Immunoreactions are completed within a short time due to small sample volumes down to the nanolitre scale. Kim et al. developed a simple and versatile miniaturized SPR immunosensor enabling parallel analyses of multiple analytes [79]. Their SPR sensor was claimed to exhibit good stability and reusability for 40 cycles and more than 35 days. Feltis et al. demonstrated a low-cost handheld SPR-based immunosensor for the toxin Ricin [80]. Springer et al. reported a dispersion-free microfluidic system with a four-channel SPR sensor platform, which considerably improved the response time and sensitivity [81]. The sensor was able to detect short sequences of nucleic acids down to a femtomole level for 4 min. Waswa et al. demonstrated the immunological detection of E. coli 0157 H7 in milk, apple juice, and meat juice extracted from... 

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