Patent ID: 6416951
Filing Date: 2002-07-09
Classification: C12Q,Y10S

Abstract:
A method for identifying a functional antisense agent, which method comprises hybridising an RNA with an oligonucleotide probe and measuring in real time the kinetics of hybridisation, wherein the kinetics are measured by either:(a) hybridising in the presence of an intercalation dye and recording a change in the spectroscopic properties of the dye as hybridising proceeds; or (b) labelling either the target RNA or the oligonucleotide probe, but not both and attaching the non-labelled entity to a solid support, generating an evanescent wave in the proximity of the non-labelled entity and recording the increase in a signal resulting from the interaction of the evanescent wave with the label as the labelled entity hybridises with the non-labelled entity; and wherein the oligonucleotide probe conprises an array of oligonucleotides, each oligonucleotide in the array having a common length of 4-8 nucleotides, all possible base sequences of that length being represented in the array, said method further comprising comparing the primary sequence of the target RNA with the sequences of the probes that hybridise with the fastest kinetics to identify regions of the target RNA which are accessible to oligonucleotide probes.