Antisense Drugs

Antisense therapy 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.
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A man-made segment of DNA or RNA that can lock onto a strand of DNA or RNA from a virus or other micro-organism. This marks the organism's genetic instructions for destruction and prevents the organism from making more copies of itself.
See Also: Deoxyribonucleic Acid, Ribonucleic Acid
  

An antisense, nucleic acid-related compound is the mirror image of the genetic sequence that it is supposed to inactivate. It is a synthetic segment of DNA<!-- (see) --> or RNA<!-- (see) --> that locks onto a strand of natural DNA or RNA with a complementary sequence of nucleotides<!-- (see) -->. By binding to either the target DNA or RNA, the antisense drug prohibits the normal functioning and expression of the gene. This prevents the building of new virus particles or the infection of new host cells. The antisense drug fomivirsen has been approved by FDA for the treatment of CMV retinitis<!-- (see) -->, a viral infection that often leads to blindness in patients with AIDS.