This has serious implications for gene therapy and DNA-based vaccine applications. In the current study, it was determined that contaminants co-purify with plasmid DNA in trace amounts, sufficient to impair functionality. The correlation was found to be significant and extremely useful as an indictaion of other potential contaminants. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was used to both identify and quantitate carbohydrate compounds as key contaminants from current purification methods.
Spectrophotometric analysis is inadequate for determining DNA quality.
Presented at ASCB, Washington DC, Dec 11-15, 1999.