Selective isolation of G-quadruplexes by affinity chromatography

G-quadruplex (G4) is a characteristic secondary structure of nucleic acids containing repetitive tandem guanines. G4-forming sequences are found prevalent in the human genome by bioinformatics analysis. Accumulating evidence has suggested that G4s are involved in many biological processes. Selective isolation of G4s would be an effective tool in the study of G4s. In this paper, we prepared four affinity matrixes using hemin or a perylene derivative (N,N′-Bis-(2-(amino)ethyl)-3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic acid diimide, Pery01) as ligand, and investigated the retention behaviors of different G4s on these matrixes. Our experimental results suggest that the π-π stacking interaction between ligand and G-tetrad plays a key role in the selective isolation of G4s, whereas the electrostatic interaction between DNA and matrix causes the nonspecific binding. One matrix prepared by immobilizing Pery01 on polyglycidylmethacrylate (PGMA) beads through an aminocaproic acid spacer exhibits good selectivity for parallel structure G4s and has been successfully used to directly isolate a spiked parallel G4 from plasma.

► G-quadruplexes are special secondary structure of nucleic acids.
► Selective isolation of G-quadruplexes is rarely reported.
► Four affinity matrixes immobilized with hemin or a perylene derivative are prepared.
► The factors that influence the selectivity are discussed.
► G-quadruplex spiked in plasma has been successfully isolated by direct injection.