Inhibition of DNA synthesis by cross-linking the template to platinum-thiol derivatives of complementary oligodeoxynucleotides.

Unsubstituted oligodeoxynucleotides, or oligodeoxynucleotides linked to poly-(L)-lysine, when hybridized to a 322 base long template, did not inhibit the production of full length DNA copies by the Klenow fragment of E. coli DNA polymerase I. However, synthesis was inhibited if the cysteamine derivative of the same oligomer was cross-linked to the template via PtII. Truncated products were formed by termination of DNA synthesis a small number of bases upstream from the 5'-end of the cross-linked oligomer. AMV reverse transcriptase behaved similarly but was also slightly inhibited by the hybridized oligomer or its poly-lysine derivative.