Abstract

POTENTIAL ROLE OF ANTISENSE OLIGONUCLEOTIDES IN REGULATION OF GENE EXPRESSION TO TARGET CANCER: A STEP FORWARD

Ashish Kumar Netam*, Jhakeshwar Prasad and Trilochan Satapathy

Abstract

Antisense Oligonucleotides have been widely used to specifically and selectively downregulate gene expression at the messenger RNA level. Treatment of cancer is a secretive problem in the current era in spite of significant advancement in drug delivery systems and identification of new therapeutic molecules. The ration of lab to market translation of therapeutic research is quite low in anticancer therapy due to hidden and unnamable disease causing and disease progression mechanisms. Oncogene activation disturbs normal cell processes such as cell growth and apoptosis, which ultimately leads to cancer. Different ways, such as RNAi, antisense Oligonucleotides, Translation suppressing oligonucleotide and external guide sequences which silences oncogene are key techniques under investigation currently. The emerging way of formulating nanoparticles containing antisense Oligonucleotides and the targeting approaches is illustrated with the brief information on key materials used for the same purpose. Gene targets identified and investigated by various companies and research groups are enumerated and reviewed for their potential to consider antisense gene therapy. In this review, our efforts have been devoted to summarize and discuss on the potential role of Antisense Oligonucleotides the different targeting approaches used for targeted drug delivery to Cancer.

Keywords: Antisense Oligonucleotides, gene expression, anticancer therapy.