Abstract: Oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) may possess biological activity in vivo, and are used for the cancer therapeusis. Synthesized ODNs contains many by-products, and so their purity check and resolution of single-base, i.e., the separation of ODNs differing by one nucleotide in length, become necessary. In this study, capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method was developed for the separation of two sets of model compounds of single-stranded oligodeoxynucleotide mixtures (1820 mers), phosphodiester oligodeoxynucleotides (PO-ODNs) and their phosphorothioate modifications (PS-ODNs), with equal sequences differing in a single base. The effects of the CZE operating parameters on the separation were investigated and optimized to further improve the resolution, such as the pH values and the concentrations of running buffer, the varieties and concentrations of additives, the separation voltage as well as the temperature. It was confirmed that the pH value of the buffer played the most important role in the separation, and the urea used as the additive in the system improved significantly the resolution of PS-ODNs. Consequently, the PO-ODNs and PS-ODNs mixtures could be single-based separated on a fused-silica capillary of 50 μm×49.0 cm (40.7 cm of effective length) under the optimum conditions: the running buffer system of 50 mmol/L NaH2PO4-H3PO4(pH 2.24)-7 mol/L urea, the pressure injection of 2 kPa×10 s, the separation voltage of 20 kV, the column temperature of 25 ℃, and the ultraviolet (UV) detection at 260 nm. The average resolutions for the separation of 1819 mers and 1920 mers of PO-ODNs were 4.68 and 3.20, respectively; and the average resolutions for the separation of 1819 mers and 1920 mers of PS-ODNs were 1.23 and 0.81, respectively. The relative standard deviations of the migration time and the resolution were all less than 5%. This method will be useful for the qualification of PO-ODNs and PS-ODNs samples as they are used in antisense drug development due to the relatively easy operation and good reproducibility of the method in comparing with the capillary gel electrophoresis.

Key words: capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), phosphodiester oligodeoxynucleotides (PO-ODNs), phosphorothioate antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (PS-ODNs) , low pH