Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers
New Rochelle, NY, November 29, 2017–Designing new therapeutic DNA aptamers with diverse side chains can improve their ability to interact with targets, and a new study describes characteristics of these side chains that may determine how long the aptamers remain in the bloodstream. Improving the pharmacokinetic properties of therapeutic aptamers is an important aspect of optimizing their drug-like properties, as discussed in the study published in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers. The article is available free on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website.
In the article entitled "Pharmacokinetic Properties of DNA Aptamers with Base Modifications," Nebojsa Janjic, SomaLogic (Boulder, CO) and coauthors from SomaLogic and Otsuka Pharmaceutical (Tokushima, Japan), describe what effect the lengths of aptamer sequences have on plasma resident time. The researchers also demonstrate the importance of the hydrophobicity of the side chains on their rate of clearance from the bloodstream. The findings can serve as a guide for designing new aptamers with side chains that enhance their diversity.
"This elegant study demonstrates how nucleotide modifications can mitigate against nuclease degradation of aptamers, as vital a concern as is delivery for successful in vivo therapeutic or diagnostic applications," says Executive Editor Graham C. Parker, PhD, The Carman and Ann Adams Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI.
###
About the Journal
Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online that focuses on cutting-edge basic research, therapeutic applications, and drug development using nucleic acids or related compounds to alter gene expression. The Journal is under the editorial leadership of Co-Editors-in-Chief Bruce A. Sullenger, PhD, Duke Translational Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center and Annemieke Aartsma-Rus, PhD, Leiden University Medical Center, and Executive Editor Graham C. Parker, PhD. Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is the official journal of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website.
About the Society
The Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society is an open, non-profit forum to foster academia- and industry-based research and development of oligonucleotide therapeutics. The society brings together the expertise from different angles of oligonucleotide research to create synergies and to bring the field of oligonucleotides to its full therapeutic potential.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Human Gene Therapy, Assay and Drug Development Technologies, Applied In Vitro Toxicology, and DNA and Cell Biology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
140 Huguenot St., New Rochelle, NY 10801-5215
Phone: 914-740-2100
800-M-LIEBERT
Fax: 914-740-2101
http://www.liebertpub.com
Media Contact
Kathryn Ryan
[email protected]
914-740-2250
@LiebertPub
http://www.liebertpub.com
Original Source
http://www.liebertpub.com/global/pressrelease/modifying-therapeutic-dna-aptamers-to-keep-them-in-the-bloodstream-longer/2299/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/nat.2017.0683
