Single-nucleotide polymorphism detection using peptide nucleic acids

Variations in the human DNA sequence between individuals can be an indication of predisposition to disease, affect the response to drug treatment, or more directly, be the fingerprint of an inheritable trait or defect. Significant efforts at improving the speed, accuracy and sensitivity of detecting such polymorphisms have led to the development of a number of powerful approaches. Sequence-specific base pairing between the strands of DNA, according to the Watson-Crick model, forms the basis of many detection systems. The crucial specificity of this hybridization reaction in discriminating between single base variations may be enhanced by using synthetic peptide nucleic acids as probes. The remarkable properties of these DNA analogs have been successfully exploited in several ways and the use of peptide nucleic acids has become an accepted addition to the collection of procedures available for genetic analysis.