Cyanine and related dyes, such as merocyanine, styryl and oxonol dyes, are strongly light-absorbing and highly luminescent. Cyanine and related dyes having functional groups make them reactive with amine, hydroxy and sulfhydryl groups are covalently attached to proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, sugars, cells and combinations thereof, and other biological and nonbiological materials, to make these materials fluorescent so that they can be detected. The labeled materials can then be used in assays employing excitation light sources and luminescence detectors. For example, fluorescent cyanine and related dyes can be attached to amine, hydroxy or sulfhydryl groups of avidin and to antibodies and to lectins. Thereupon, avidin labeled with cyanine type dyes can be used to quantify biotinylated materials and antibodies conjugated with cyanine-type dyes can be used to detect and measure antigens and haptens. In addition, cyanine-conjugated lectins can be used to detect specific carbohydrate groups. Also, cyanine-conjugated fragments of DNA or RNA can be used to identify the presence of complementary nucleotide sequences in DNA or RNA.
青光素
染料和相关
染料,例如甲氧基青光素、
苯乙烯基和氧酮醇
染料,具有强烈的吸光性和高度的发光性。具有功能基团的青光素
染料和相关
染料使它们与胺基、羟基和巯基反应,可以共价地附着于蛋白质、核酸、
碳水化合物、糖、细胞和它们的组合,以使这些材料发出荧光,从而可以被检测到。标记后的材料可以在激发光源和发光检测器的检测下用于测定。例如,荧光青光素
染料和相关
染料可以附着于亲和素、
抗体和凝集素的胺基、羟基或巯基上。因此,用青光素型
染料标记的亲和素可以用于定量
生物素化材料,用青光素型
染料偶联的
抗体可以用于检测和测量抗原和半抗原。此外,青光素偶联的凝集素可以用于检测特定的
碳水化合物基团。此外,青光素偶联的DNA或RNA片段可以用于鉴定DNA或RNA中互补核苷酸序列的存在。