Cleavage of intracellular hepatitis C RNA in the virus core protein coding region by deoxyribozymes

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection represents an important global health problem. Current antiviral therapeutics for HCV have proven inadequate in stemming the disease process. A novel therapeutic strategy involves the use of deoxyribozymes, also known as DNA enzymes or DNAzymes. These catalytic DNA molecules, designed to target and cleave specific RNA sequences, have shown promise in in vitro experimental models for various diseases and may serve as an alternative or adjunct to current HCV drug therapy. We designed and tested several deoxyribozymes that can bind and cleave highly conserved RNA sequences encoding the HCV core protein in in vitro systems. One of these deoxyribozymes reduced the level of our HCV RNA target by 32% and 48% after 24 h of cell exposure when tested in human hepatoma and epithelial cell lines, respectively. As this deoxyribozyme showed significant cleavage activity against HCV core protein target RNA in human cells, it may have potential as a therapeutic candidate for clinical trial in HCV infected patients.