Recently, the investigation of antisense phosphorothioate oligonucleotides as therapeutic agents for various diseases has become a growing topic. The analysis of these oligonucleotides as therapeutic agents requires a method with high selectivity and sensitivity, usually LC-MS.  Oligonucleotides have long been analyzed using ion-pairing reversed phase chromatography as well as the addition of organic modifiers; however, these ion-pairing agents and organic modifiers have been known to decrease sensitivity.  Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) has previously been shown to separate highly polar species that are difficult to separate by conventional methods.  The focus of this work is to optimize the separation between oligonucleotides of various lengths using HILIC to improve LC-MS sensitivity and selectivity.  Polythymidilic oligonucleotides of various lengths are used as standards for the method development, and mass spectral identification will be obtained by LC-ICPMS.

Download Renee's CV - PDF