Magnetic Nanoparticles as separators of nucleic acids

Introduction Molecular biology deals with the explanation of how the functioning of living organisms is subject to the characteristics of particles, and especially biopolymers such as nucleic acids and proteins. Along with the development and advancement of molecular biology techniques, it was possible to develop several methods of separation of macromolecules using different physicochemical phenomena [1, 2]. These methods are based mainly on the properties of macromolecules, such as surface charge, the presence of functional groups and the generation of hydrophobic interactions [3]. Nanotechnology is an interdisciplinary science and its robust growth is directly related to the advances in medical science. There are high hopes associated with the use of magnetic nanoparticles (MNP – Magnetic Nanoparticles) in molecular biology. These display a number of features that enable them to provide a basis for their use as separation tools. In addition to the possessed surface charge and related electro-kinetic properties, they are characterized by magnetic properties which facilitate the separation process, and thereby the puriication of the resulting conjugate to a constant magnetic nano-phase. Another important feature of the nanostructures is a large surface area which allows the immobilization of many biologically active molecules at the same time [4÷6]. MNP are used in many biomedical applications, including the controlled delivery of drugs (DDS – Drug Delivery Systems) [7], targeted therapy (TT – Target Therapy) [8] and at the level of diagnostic separation in the sorting of cells [9], in isolation and detection of bacteria [10, 11] and also as nano-biosensors to detect exogenous substances [12]. This paper presents the synthesis and application of magnetic nanoparticles functionalized by aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS) for the immobilization of DNA. The analysis of the conjugates of DNAnanoparticle was performed by a spectroscopy of diffuse relectance in infrared (DRIFTS – Diffuse Relectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy).