Figure 5.

Kinetic study of oligonucleotides containing α-l-LNA at the 3′-end (t₁₀T^αt and t₉T^α₂t) against a 3′-exonuclease (SVPD), in order to evaluate the nucleolytic stability. The graph also shows the corresponding controls (t₁₂, t_s12, t₁₀Tt and t₉T₂t). The assays were performed using 26 µg/ml oligonucleotide, 0.3 µg/ml enzyme at 37°C in a buffer of 50 mM Tris–HCl, 10 mM MgCl₂, pH 8. Aliquots of the enzymatic digestion were removed at the indicated times. In a separate assay, the enzyme was shown to maintain its activity under these conditions for at least 2 h (data not shown). The oligonucleotides were synthesized on deoxynucleoside-support, t. Upper case for LNA and lower case for DNA.