Nucleoside–metallacarborane conjugates for multipotential electrochemical coding of DNA

Metallacarboranes as electrochemical labels are proposed. The electrochemical properties of nucleoside conjugates, derivatives of thymidine (T), 2′-deoxycytidine (dC), 2′-deoxyadenosine (dA) and 2′-deoxyguanosine (dG), containing metallacarborane complex of cobalt or iron are described. A multielectrochemical detection using specific metallacarborane tags is shown. The proposed labelling of nucleosides lays the foundations for electrochemical coding of DNA with metallacarborane complexes and simultaneous detection of several DNA targets.