Rapid Synthesis of Biotin-, Digoxigenin-, Trinitrophenyl-, and Fluorochrome-labeled Tyramides and Their Application for In Situ Hybridization Using CARD Amplification

A one-step procedure for the synthesis of different tyramide conjugates, which can be utilized in the catalyzed reporter deposition (CARD) amplification system, is described. Succinimidyl esters of biotin, digoxigenin, and of the fluorochromes fluorescein, rhodamine, aminomethylcoumarine acetic acid, and Cy3 were coupled to tyramine in dimethylformamide (DMF) adjusted to a pH of 7.0-8.0 with triethylamine (TEA). The coupling reaction can be performed within 2 hr and the reaction mixture can be applied without further purification steps. Furthermore, trinitrophenyl (TNP)-tyramide was prepared by adding 2,4,6,-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid to tyramine dissolved in either MilliQ/DMF basified with TEA or in an NaHCO3 (pH 9.5) buffer. A subsequent precipitation of the TNP-tyramide resulted in a high-yield isolation of this conjugate. The synthesized tyramide conjugates were applied successfully in single- and multiple-target in situ hybridization (ISH) procedures to detect both repetitive and single-copy DNA target sequences in cell preparations with high efficiency. The described approach provides an easy and fast method to prepare a variety of tyramide conjugates in bulk amounts at relatively low cost.