Patent ID: 7169553

Claim:
A method for the determination of the presence or absence of nucleic acids each comprising a particular sequence in a sample comprising the steps contacting said sample with a solid phase having immobilized on its surface nucleic acid binding compounds each containing a sequence complementary to one of said particular sequences of said nucleic acids, determining on said solid phase the formation of hybrids containing a nucleic acid with a particular sequence and the nucleic acid binding compound containing the complementary sequence, characterized in that said at least one of said nucleic acid binding compounds comprises: a backbone, comprising one or more attached heterocyclic groups capable of base pairing to natural nucleobases, with at least one of the heterocyclic groups being one of the naturally occurring nucleobases, and characterized in that at least one other of the heterocyclic groups comprises a group of the general formula I: wherein: W is selected independently from X, Y and Z from the group consisting of N and CR 2 ; Z is selected from the group consisting of N and C with the proviso that if Z is N, then X independently from W and Y is selected from the group consisting of N and CR 3 , and Y independently from W and X is selected from the group consisting of N and CR 4 , and the bond between X and Y is a double bond and the bond between Y and Z is a single bond, and if Z is C, then X is NR 33 , and Y is selected from the group consisting of N and CR 4 and the bond between Z and Y is a double bond and the bond between X and Y is a single bond; R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 are independently selected from the group consisting of —H, -halogen, —OR 13 , —SR 19 , —(C 1 –C 10 )-alkyl, —(C 2 –C 10 )-alkenyl, —(C 2 –C 10 )-alkynyl, —NO 2 , —NR 5 R 6 , -cyano, and —C(═O)R 11 ; R 11 is selected from the group consisting of —OH, —(C 1 –C 6 )-alkoxy, —(C 6 –C 22 )-aryloxy, and NHR 12 ; R 5 , R 6 , R 12 , R 13 , R 19 and R 33 are selected independently from the group consisting of —H, —(C 1 –C 10 )-alkyl, —(C 2 –C 10 )-alkenyl, —(C 2 –C 10 )-alkynyl, —(C 6 –C 22 )-aryl, a protecting group and a reporter group; D is the position of attachment of the group to the rest of the nucleic acid binding compound; and, the alkyl, alkenyl and alkynyl being unsubstituted or substituted by one or more moieties selected from the group consisting of -halogen, —SH, —S—(C 1 –C 6 )-alkyl, —(C 1 –C 6 )-alkoxy, —OH, —NR 5 R 6 , —COR 11 , —NH—CONR 5 R 6 , —NH—CSNR 5 R 6 and —[O—(CH 2 ) r ] s —NR 5 R 6 with r and s are independently of each other an integer of 1 to 18.