What is the difference between OPC® and HPLC purification?

OPC® is an abbreviation for “Oligonucleotide Purification Cartridge”. This purification method consists of a reverse-phase (RP)-chromatography, which separates complete, newly synthesized oligonucleotides from failure sequences, by-products, and other impurities. Specifically, the OPC® cartridge binds the dimithyltrityl (DMT) of the trityl-on oligonucleotide (complete, newly synthesized) from non-DMT bearing molecules. This techniques performs best for oligonucleotides up to 40 nucleotides in length.

Our high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) purification system also consists in a RP-chromatography. However, this is performed under high-pressure and highly efficient conditions.

Both in OPC® and HPLC, application of mild acids effectively removes the DMT group, thus allowing elution of purified and detritylated oligonucleotides.