What Is Antisense Therapeutics?

Antisense therapeutics is a form of treatment for genetic disorders or infections. When the genetic sequence of a particular gene is known to be causative of a particular disease, it is possible to synthesize a strand of nucleic acid (DNA, RNA or a chemical analogue) that will bind to the messenger RNA (mRNA) produced by that gene and inactivate it, effectively turning that gene "off". This is because mRNA has to be single stranded for it to be translated. Alternatively, the strand might be targeted to bind a splicing site on pre-mRNA and modify the exon content of an mRNA.[1]

This synthesized nucleic acid is termed an "anti-sense" oligonucleotide because its base sequence is complementary to the gene's messenger RNA (mRNA), which is called the "sense" sequence (so that a sense segment of mRNA " 5'-AAGGUC-3' " would be blocked by the anti-sense mRNA segment " 3'-UUCCAG-5' ").

Antisense drugs are being researched to treat cancers (including lung cancer, colorectal carcinoma, pancreatic carcinoma, malignant glioma and malignant melanoma), diabetes, ALS, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and diseases such as asthma and arthritis with an inflammatory component. Most potential therapies have not yet produced significant clinical results, though one antisense drug, fomivirsen (marketed as Vitravene), has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a treatment for cytomegalovirus retinitis.

Industry Experts and Global Regulators to Discuss Oligonucleotide-Based Therapeutics Issues
The Drug Information Association (DIA), in collaboration with the FDA, Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society, Health Canada, and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, will host the 2nd Conference on Oligonucleotide-based Therapeutics (September 22 - 24; Falls Church, VA).