Recent patents on nucleic acid-based antiviral therapeutics

The concept of using nucleic acids as a prospective antiviral therapeutics has been one of the major areas of study for researchers since the last three decades. Among the many proposed technologies for specifically perturbing gene expression, four potent nucleic acids based technologies such as Antisense (AS), Ribozyme, Aptamer and RNA Interference (RNAi) have emerged. Though being technically different from each other, these technologies share among themselves the features of conceptual simplicity, straightforward designing and quick drug identification methods, which enable them to be pre-clinically and clinically tested at a rapid pace. The scale of growth, in the level of scientific interest and in the number of patents claimed based on these technologies, is not surprising considering the aforementioned factors. As more and more drugs continue to appear with the promise of actually curing the disease, instead of merely offering temporary symptomatic relief, this study is becoming even more intriguing, both scientifically and commercially. This review article puts together and discusses the latest patents filed based on the above mentioned technologies with an objective to provide an insight into the latest developments in this field of study that projects these technologies as a prospective antiviral therapeutics. The listed patents have been classified technology wise and further sub-classified on the basis of their target disease.