Johnson & Johnson Clinical Diagnostics, Inc.

Eastman-kodak Company

Jerome C Swartz

Ignazio S Ponticello

Tobias E Ekeze

Richard C Sutton

John Bruce Findlay

JoAnne H Kerschner

John W Backus

Nucleic acids can be made available for amplification or other treatment after lysis by contacting the lysate with specific weakly basic polymers to form a precipitate with the nucleic acids at acidic pH. After removing non-precipitated materials, the pH is then made basic, thereby releasing the nucleic acids from the polymer. This method for preparing specimen samples is simple and quite rapid, and the released nucleic acids can be further treated in hybridization assays or amplification procedures. The weakly basic polymers are water-soluble and cationic at acidic pH, but neutral in charge at basic pH.

Methods for capture and selective release of nucleic acids using weakly

Weakly basic ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable monomers and polymers have been prepared. The monomers are represented by the structure (I): ##STR1## wherein R is hydrogen or methyl, and R.sup.1 is alkylene of 1 to 3 carbon atoms. The resulting polymers are water-soluble and cationic at acidic pH, but water-insoluble and neutral in charge at basic pH. The polymers are useful for precipitating nucleic acids.

Weakly basic polymerizable monomers and polymers prepared therefrom

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Rochester, NY, United States of America

Jerome C Swartz