FRACTIONATION AND STRUCTURAL ELUCIDATION OF THE ACTIVE COMPONENTS OF AURINTRICARBOXYLIC ACID, A POTENT INHIBITOR OF PROTEIN NUCLEIC-ACID INTERACTIONS

Commercially available, as well as synthetically prepared, samples of aurintricarboxylic acid (a widely employed potent inhibitor of protein nucleic acid interactions) consist mostly of a heterogeneous collection of polymers, as shown by fractionation schemes utilizing both dialysis and ultrafiltration, and by molecular weight measurements. 13C-NMR studies suggest that the polymeric material is of the phenol-formaldehyde type; inhibitory assays that depend on the formation of a protein-nucleic acid complex revealed that potency varied directly with the molecular weight of the polymer. Fractions of molecular weight 400 were essentially inactive. © 1979.