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Updated: Oct 8, 2025

High-throughput Screening for Broad-spectrum Chemical Inhibitors of RNA Viruses
Published on: May 5, 2014
Antisense Oligonucleotide-Based Therapy of Viral Infections
Woan-Yuh Tarn1, Yun Cheng2, Shih-Han Ko3
1Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, 128 Academy Road, Section 2, Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan.
Abstract:
Nucleic acid-based therapeutics have demonstrated their efficacy in the treatment of various diseases and vaccine development. Antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology exploits a single-strand short oligonucleotide to either cause target RNA degradation or sterically block the binding of cellular factors or machineries to the target RNA. Chemical modification or bioconjugation of ASOs can enhance both its pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic performance, and it enables customization for a specific clinical purpose. ASO-based therapies have been used for treatment of genetic disorders, cancer and viral infections. In particular, ASOs can be rapidly developed for newly emerging virus and their reemerging variants. This review discusses ASO modifications and delivery options as well as the design of antiviral ASOs. A better understanding of the viral life cycle and virus-host interactions as well as advances in oligonucleotide technology will benefit the development of ASO-based antiviral therapies.
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