The clearance and degradation of oligodeoxynucleotides following intravenous injection into rabbits.

A 32P-labeled oligodeoxynucleotide of 20 bases was found to be quite stable in freshly drawn rabbit or human blood and no degradation was apparent within 2 hr. In contrast, following injection into rabbits, the same oligodeoxynucleotide was cleared from the blood rapidly and at least 17% was completely degraded within 5 min. After 90 min, 16% of the oligonucleotide was found largely intact in the urine. At this time, radioisotope was also found in all the solid tissues tested but probably not as intact oligonucleotide.