Environmentally sensitive molecular probes reveal mutations and epigenetic 5-methyl cytosine in human oncogenes.

There is currently an unmet need for reliable tools that allow for direct detection and quantification of modifications in genomic DNA. For example, in cancer research and clinical diagnostics, target DNA has to be amplified and sequenced in order to reveal mutations. For 5-methylcytosine detection, bisulfite treatment of DNA is applied for the analysis, which often leads to poor specificity and reproducibility of the results. Herein we describe a simple approach that specifically detects clinically significant modifications in the human oncogenes BRAF and KRAS. We prove that this can be done using a fast and reliable hybridization assay applying novel internally labelled oligonucleotide probes and optical detection methods.