5-aza or 5-aza2-deoxy - demethylator choice (Feb/05/2007 )

In order to confirm that genes are silenced by means of methylation, one can use 5-azacytidine or 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine. Both differ in their roles and cytotoxicity but which one is the preferred chemical of choice for these kind of experiments?

I can't explain exactly why, but most people stick to 5-AZA deoxycytidine.

K.

5-aza-cytidine can incorporate in to RNA as well as DNA, therefore having a shorter half life than....

5-aza-deoxycytosine which only incorporates into DNA, both are degraded by cytidine deaminase.

zebularine which is an analogue to these seems to be more stable and I think from memory it is also not affected by cytidine deaminase activity.

Nick