Auckland, New Zealand-based GeneDetect.com has designed ODN decoys to more than 45 common transcription factors, with plans to release more. Each decoy is a double-stranded, synthetic phosphorothioate deoxynucleotide, from 20 to 28 base pairs in length. "The flanking regions are proprietary," explains Paul Hughes, the company's CEO, "but the standard consensus regions are from transcription factor databases available on the Internet."
These decoys offer several benefits. First, they can be used in real time, in living cells. "Although you can add naked decoys to the cells, we suggest mixing the decoy with a liposome complex before adding it to the cells," says Hughes. The company recommends Carlsbad, Calif.-based Invitrogen Corp.'s OligofectAMINE reagent for this purpose. Since cell types vary in their susceptibility to transfection and different liposome complexes perform better than others do, "you may need to tweak the different conditions to get the best results," adds Hughes. The suggested ...
