Applications of nucleic acid drugs for organ transplantation

Although organ transplantations have been broadly performed in humans, occurrence of rejection has not yet been resolved. Several inflammatory factors, such as cytokines and adhesion molecules, enhance the rejection. Specific treatments that target in the attenuation of rejection have not been well studied in organ transplantation. Recent progress in the nucleic acid drugs, such as antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) to regulate the transcription of disease-related genes, are known to play critical roles in therapeutic applications. Transfection of cis-element double-stranded DNA, named as "decoy", has been also reported to be a useful nucleic acid drug. This strategy has been not only a useful method for the experimental studies of gene regulation but also a novel clinical strategy. In this article, we reviewed the experimental results of nucleic acid drugs using the experimental organ transplant models.