Methods of detection of conformational change in a nucleic acid duplex by treatment with oxidising or reactive agent as a result of exposure to environmental or chemical conditions

摘要

A method of detecting a conformational change in a test nucleic acid duplex sample, which has been exposed to test conditions, relative to a control nucleic acid duplex sample, which comprises the steps of separately subjecting the test and control duplex samples to treatment with an oxidising or reactive effective amount of an oxidising or reactive agent for a time and under conditions sufficient to oxidise or otherwise react with perturbed bases within the duplexes, and determining if there is a difference in: (a) formation or rate of formation of one or more reaction products; and/or (b) consumption or rate of consumption of one or more starting agents; between test sample and control sample, wherein determining if there is a difference in (a) and/or (b) between the test and control samples does not involve enzymatic or chemical cleavage and the use of a separation step, and wherein a difference indicates conformational change of the test sample.