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Fomivirsen
Fomivirsen (brand name Vitravene) is an antisense antiviral drug that was used in the treatment of cytomegalovirus retinitis (CMV) in immunocompromised patients, including those with AIDS. It was administered via intraocular injection. It was discovered at the NIH and was licensed and initially developed by Isis Pharmaceuticals, which subsequently licensed it to Novartis. It was licensed by the FDA for CMV in Aug 1998, and was the first antisense drug that was approved. Novartis withdrew the marketing authorization in the EU in 2002 and in the US in 2006. The drug was withdrawn because while there was a high unmet need for drugs to treat CMV when the drug was initially discovered and developed due to the CMV arising in people with AIDS, the development of HAART dramatically reduced the number of cases of CMV. It is an antisense oligonucleotide -- a synthetic 21 member oligonucleotide with phosphorothioate linkages (which are resistant to degradation by nucleases) and has th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antisense Therapy
Antisense therapy is a form of treatment that uses antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) to target messenger RNA (mRNA). ASOs are capable of altering mRNA expression through a variety of mechanisms, including ribonuclease H mediated decay of the pre-mRNA, direct steric blockage, and exon content modulation through Splicing (genetics), splicing site binding on pre-mRNA. Several ASOs have been approved in the United States, the European Union, and elsewhere. Nomenclature The common stem for antisense oligonucleotides drugs is -rsen. The substem -virsen designates antiviral antisense oligonucleotides. Antisense Oligonucleotide Development Developments in ASO modification are separated into three generations. Generation one is called backbone-modified and focuses on the phosphodiester group of the nucleotide. This impacts inter-nucleotide binding. These modifications led to better distribution, reduced urinary excretion, and prolonged residence time of the ASOs in the cell. Some exam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antisense RNA
Antisense RNA (asRNA), also referred to as antisense transcript, natural antisense transcript (NAT) or antisense oligonucleotide, is a single stranded RNA that is complementary to a protein coding messenger RNA (mRNA) with which it hybridizes, and thereby blocks its Translation (biology), translation into protein. The asRNAs (which occur naturally) have been found in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and can be classified into short (200 nucleotides) non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). The primary function of asRNA is regulating gene expression. asRNAs may also be produced synthetically and have found wide spread use as research tools for gene knockdown. They may also have therapeutic applications. Discovery and history in drug development Some of the earliest asRNAs were discovered while investigating functional proteins. An example was MicF RNA, micF asRNA. While characterizing the outer membrane Porin (protein), porin in Escherichia coli, ''E.coli'', some of the promoter clones observ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Translation (genetics)
In biology, translation is the process in living cells in which proteins are produced using RNA molecules as templates. The generated protein is a sequence of amino acids. This sequence is determined by the sequence of nucleotides in the RNA. The nucleotides are considered three at a time. Each such triple results in the addition of one specific amino acid to the protein being generated. The matching from nucleotide triple to amino acid is called the genetic code. The translation is performed by a large complex of functional RNA and proteins called ribosomes. The entire process is called gene expression. In translation, messenger RNA (mRNA) is decoded in a ribosome, outside the nucleus, to produce a specific amino acid chain, or polypeptide. The polypeptide later folds into an active protein and performs its functions in the cell. The polypeptide can also start folding during protein synthesis. The ribosome facilitates decoding by inducing the binding of complementary transfe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclease
In biochemistry, a nuclease (also archaically known as nucleodepolymerase or polynucleotidase) is an enzyme capable of cleaving the phosphodiester bonds that link nucleotides together to form nucleic acids. Nucleases variously affect single and double stranded breaks in their target molecules. In living organisms, they are essential machinery for many aspects of DNA repair. Defects in certain nucleases can cause genetic instability or immunodeficiency. Nucleases are also extensively used in molecular cloning. There are two primary classifications based on the locus of activity. Exonucleases digest nucleic acids from the ends. Endonucleases act on regions in the ''middle'' of target molecules. They are further subcategorized as deoxyribonucleases and ribonucleases. The former acts on DNA, the latter on RNA. History In the late 1960s, scientists Stuart Linn and Werner Arber isolated examples of the two types of enzymes responsible for phage growth restriction in Escherichi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thiophosphate
Thiophosphates (or phosphorothioates, PS) are chemical compounds and anions with the general chemical formula (''x'' = 0, 1, 2, or 3) and related derivatives where organic groups are attached to one or more O or S. Thiophosphates feature tetrahedral phosphorus(V) centers. Organic Organothiophosphates are a subclass of organophosphorus compounds that are structurally related to the inorganic thiophosphates. Common members have formulas of the type (RO)3−''x''(RS)''x''PS and related compounds where RO is replaced by RS. Many of these compounds are used as insecticides, some have medical applications, and some have been used as oil additives.J. Svara, N. Weferling, T. Hofmann "Phosphorus Compounds, Organic" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2006. Oligonucleotide phosphorothioates (OPS) are modified oligonucleotides where one of the oxygen atoms in the phosphate moiety is replaced by sulfur. They are the basis of antisense therapy, e.g., the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oligonucleotide
Oligonucleotides are short DNA or RNA molecules, oligomers, that have a wide range of applications in genetic testing, Recombinant DNA, research, and Forensic DNA, forensics. Commonly made in the laboratory by Oligonucleotide synthesis, solid-phase chemical synthesis, these small fragments of nucleic acids can be manufactured as single-stranded molecules with any user-specified sequence, and so are vital for artificial gene synthesis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), DNA sequencing, molecular cloning and as Fluorescence in situ hybridization, molecular probes. In nature, oligonucleotides are usually found as small RNA molecules that function in the regulation of gene expression (e.g. microRNA), or are degradation intermediates derived from the breakdown of larger nucleic acid molecules. Oligonucleotides are characterized by the Nucleic acid sequence, sequence of nucleotide residues that make up the entire molecule. The length of the oligonucleotide is usually denoted by "Monomer, -m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antisense
In molecular biology and genetics, the sense of a nucleic acid molecule, particularly of a strand of DNA or RNA, refers to the nature of the roles of the strand and its complement in specifying a sequence of amino acids. Depending on the context, sense may have slightly different meanings. For example, the negative-sense strand of DNA is equivalent to the template strand, whereas the positive-sense strand is the non-template strand whose nucleotide sequence is equivalent to the sequence of the mRNA transcript. DNA sense Because of the complementary nature of base-pairing between nucleic acid polymers, a double-stranded DNA molecule will be composed of two strands with sequences that are reverse complements of each other. To help molecular biologists specifically identify each strand individually, the two strands are usually differentiated as the "sense" strand and the "antisense" strand. An individual strand of DNA is referred to as positive-sense (also positive (+) or simply sen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Injection (medicine)
An injection (often and usually referred to as a "shot" in US English, a "jab" in UK English, or a "jag" in Scottish English and Scots) is the act of administering a liquid, especially a drug, into a person's body using a needle (usually a hypodermic needle) and a syringe. An injection is considered a form of parenteral drug administration; it does not involve absorption in the digestive tract. This allows the medication to be absorbed more rapidly and avoid the first pass effect. There are many types of injection, which are generally named after the body tissue the injection is administered into. This includes common injections such as subcutaneous, intramuscular, and intravenous injections, as well as less common injections such as epidural, intraperitoneal, intraosseous, intracardiac, intraarticular, and intracavernous injections. Injections are among the most common health care procedures, with at least 16 billion administered in developing and transitional ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HAART
The management of HIV/AIDS normally includes the use of multiple antiretroviral drugs as a strategy to control HIV infection. There are several classes of antiretroviral agents that act on different stages of the HIV life-cycle. The use of multiple drugs that act on different viral targets is known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). HAART decreases the patient's total burden of HIV, maintains function of the immune system, and prevents opportunistic infections that often lead to death. HAART also prevents the transmission of HIV between serodiscordant same-sex and opposite-sex partners so long as the HIV-positive partner maintains an undetectable viral load. Treatment has been so successful that in many parts of the world, HIV has become a chronic condition in which progression to AIDS is increasingly rare. Anthony Fauci, former head of the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has written, "With collective and resolute action n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ionis Pharmaceuticals
Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biotechnology company based in Carlsbad, California, that specializes in discovering and developing RNA-targeted therapeutics. The company has three commercially approved medicines: Spinraza ( Nusinersen), Tegsedi ( Inotersen), and Waylivra ( Volanesorsen), and has four drugs in pivotal studies: tominersen for Huntington's disease (together with Roche), tofersen for SOD1- ALS, AKCEA-APO(a)-LRx for cardiovascular disease, and AKCEA-TTR-LRx for all forms of TTR amyloidosis. The company was named Isis Pharmaceuticals until December 2015. History The company was founded in 1989 as Isis Pharmaceuticals by Stanley T. Crooke, a former head of research of GlaxoSmithKline, with the goal of commercializing antisense therapy. In 1992, the company received its first approval by the Food and Drug Administration for an investigational new drug application in 1992 for a genital warts drug candidate. The FDA approval marked the first time for the company t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drug Development
Drug development is the process of bringing a new pharmaceutical drug to the market once a lead compound has been identified through the process of drug discovery. It includes preclinical research on microorganisms and animals, filing for regulatory status, such as via the United States Food and Drug Administration for an investigational new drug to initiate clinical trials on humans, and may include the step of obtaining regulatory approval with a new drug application to market the drug. The entire process—from concept through preclinical testing in the laboratory to clinical trial development, including Phase I–III trials—to approved vaccine or drug typically takes more than a decade. New chemical entity development Broadly, the process of drug development can be divided into preclinical and clinical work. Pre-clinical New chemical entities (NCEs, also known as new molecular entities or NMEs) are compounds that emerge from the process of drug discovery. These h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
