Credit: (c) Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers
New Rochelle, NY, October 11, 2018–In a new study researchers have developed a two-pronged approach for targeting Ebola virus infection using linked nucleic acid (LNA) antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs)designed to interfere both genes essential for translation of Ebola virus genes and to block production of an intracellular human protein needed for the virus to enter cells. The results of using LNA ASOs to interfere with critical Ebola genes and host proteins are published in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers. The full-text article is available free on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website through November 11, 2018 at https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/nat.2018.0722.
Anders Näär, Jessica Chery, Alexandre Wagschal, and Shobha Vasudevan, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center (Charlestown, MA), and Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA), Andreas Petri and Sakari Kauppinen, Aalborg University (Denmark), and Sun-Yound Lim and James Cunningham, Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston, MA) and Harvard Medical School (Boston) coauthored the article entitled "Development of Locked Nucleic Acid Antisense Oligonucleotides Targeting Ebola Viral Proteins and Host Factor Niemann-Pick C1."
The researchers described the distinct applications of LNA ASOs for this application. They demonstrated effective targeting of two Ebola viral genes -NP and VP24 – which promote Ebola replication and inhibit a proper immune response against the virus, respectively. They also showed the ability to use LNA ASOs to prevent Ebola infectivity via a pathway that requires the host protein Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1).
"This is the first application of LNA ASOs as a potential therapeutic strategy for the deadly Ebola virus, with multifarious advantages over the existing but as yet unapproved strategies," 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.
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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.
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Original Source
https://home.liebertpub.com/news/a-promising-new-therapeutic-approach-against-ebola-virus-locked-nucleic-acid-antisense-oligonucleotides/2449 http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/nat.2018.0722
