Short Technical Repor t A Rapid Direct Telomerase Assay Method Using 96-Well Streptavidin Plate s

We have developed a high-throughpu t direct assay method for the assay of telom erase activity that improves on previous d i rect telomerase assays in two ways that a l low larger numbers of samples to b e conveniently processed: ( i) 96-well strept a vidin coated plates are used to bind an d wash biotinylated primer extension pro d ucts from the telomerase assay, as oppose d to tubes containing streptavidin-coate d magnetic beads; and (i i) storage phospho r imagery is used instead of film autoradio g raphy to detect telomerase products afte r being washed and released from the strept a vidin-derivatized matrix. This method im proves on previous direct assay methods u s ing magnetic beads by allowing large r numbers of samples to be conveniently a s sayed. Also, the total activity of the radiol a beled nucleotides used in this procedure i s significantly lower than that used in sta n dard direct telomerase assays, lowerin g costs and exposure to radioactivity. We hav e validated the assay by repeating, in tripl i cate, the IC 50 determination of rivanol, ou r previously identified telomerase inhibitor .