Resonance Rayleigh scattering spectral characteristics of interaction of nucleic acids with some cationic surfactants and their analytical applications

In near neutral medium, the resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS) intensities of an alone cationic surfactant and nucleic acid are very weak. However, when they combine with each other to form a complex, the RRS intensity of the solution is enhanced greatly. In this paper the reactions of five cationic surfactants with nucleic acids have been studied. The results show that the reaction conditions and RRS spectral characteristics of these reactions are similar, but their sensitivities are obviously different. Among them, the sensitivity of cetyldimethyl benzylammonium chloride (CDBAC) with an aryl and large molecular weight is the highest, while that of cetyl-trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) without aryl and with small molecular weight is the lowest. The detection limits for ctDNA and yRNA of the former are 6.6 and 29.4 ng · mL^?1, while that of the latter are 13.3 and 53.6 ng · mL^?1. The method has better selectivity and can be applied to the determination of trace amounts of nucleic acids. Furthermore, it is discovered in the investigation that not only the RRS intensity is related to the structure and molecular weight of the cationic surfactants, but also the change of the RRS intensity is closely related to the conformational change of nucleic acid. Therefore, the RRS method can be expanded to become a useful way to study the nucleic acid conformation.