Nature Biotechnology21, 1457 - 1465 (2003)
Published online: 26 November 2003; | doi:10.1038/nbt915
Approaches for the sequence-specific knockdown of mRNA
Lisa J Scherer
& John J Rossi
Division of Molecular Biology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, California 91010, USA.
Correspondence should be addressed to John J Rossi jrossi@coh.org
Over the past 25 years there have been thousands of published reports describing applications of antisense nucleic acid derivatives for targeted inhibition of gene function. The major classes of antisense agents currently used by investigators for sequence-specific mRNA knockdowns are antisense oligonucleotides (ODNs), ribozymes, DNAzymes and RNA interference (RNAi). Whatever the method, the problems for effective application are remarkably similar: efficient delivery, enhanced stability, minimization of off-target effects and identification of sensitive sites in the target RNAs. These challenges have been in existence from the first attempts to use antisense research tools, and need to be met before any antisense molecule can become widely accepted as a therapeutic agent.
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