Link Technologies is now licensed to commercialise a range of unlocked nucleic acid (UNA) monomers from Danish company RiboTask. Under the agreement, Link can sell four UNA monomer phosphoramidite reagents for use in research.
Unlocked nucleic acid (UNA) is an acyclic ribonucleoside analogue in which the bond between C2' and C3' atoms is broken. This change in sugar structure renders this nucleoside analogue very flexible. This characteristic is in sharp contrast to the widely used locked nucleosides that locks the sugar conformation by a bridged bond between C2' and C4' atoms. The flexible nature of UNA reduces the binding affinity between two strands of siRNA molecule and gives unique characteristics to its gene-silencing abilities.
RiboTask’s UNA products are said to enable the fine-tuning of the duplex thermodynamic stability of oligonucleotides with applications in areas such as improved siRNA gene silencing.
Link Technology products can be ordered online at www.linktech.co.uk