ODN, an aliquot
of pG was buffer-exchanged to (100 mM sodium phosphate, 25 μM
TCEP, pH 7) using a PD10 desalting column (GE Healthcare). Subsequently,
desalted pG was concentrated to a final concentration of 50 μM
using Amicon 3 kDa MWCO centrifugal filters (Merck Millipore). Ten
nmol lyophilized SMCC-functionalized ODN was reconstituted in 40 μL
of 50 μM pG (2 nmol), resulting in a five times excess of maleimide–ODN.
The reaction was shaken at 850 rpm for 3 h at 20 °C. The coupling
efficiency was assessed using SDS-PAGE under nonreducing conditions.
The purification, if applicable, of pG-ODN was performed using fast
protein liquid chromatography (FPLC, ÄKTA Prime, GE Healthcare)
with an anion-exchange HiTrap Q HP column (1 mL, GE Healthcare) using
a salt gradient with a start and end concentration of 100 and 500
mM NaCl in 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), respectively. Elution fractions
were collected and analyzed by measuring online absorption at 280
nm and SDS-PAGE under nonreducing conditions. pG-ODN conjugates were
aliquoted and stored at −80 °C.