Short Oligonucleotides Used in New Antisense Technology

New "antisense” technology (called oligonucleotide directed misfolding of RNA or ODMiR) inhibits RNA function in Candida albicans by employing short oligonucleotides to stabilize inactive RNA structures. The technology was described in the August 20, 2002, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

ODMiR disables the cell's protein synthetic machinery by inserting short oligonucleotide sequences into the antisense RNA strand. This addition causes the RNA to assume a nonfunctional configuration different from the original RNA molecule. In this fashion, very short molecules, just eight or 12 nucleotides long, can disable a molecule of RNA 400 nucleotides long.

"The technology makes it possible for us to force a molecule to assume a nonfunctional shape,” said team leader Dr. Douglas Turner, a chemist at the Center for Human Genetics and Molecular Pediatric Disease of the University of Rochester (NY, USA). "It is like making the molecule change from a square knot to a slip knot. You change the dynamics of the RNA and cause it to fold into the wrong shape. In the expensive world of antisense technology, such short oligonucleotides would translate to savings for a pharmaceutical company producing an antisense drug, and could also result in fewer side effects.”




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