Splice modulating oligomers as cancer therapeutics

The targeted cancer therapies, also known as “molecular targeted therapies,” take advantage of the molecular and genetic differences between the cancer cells and the normal cells. It needs a thorough understanding of the cancer cells to develop drugs that can target specific molecular aspects that drive the growth, progression, and spread of cancer cells without affecting the growth and survival of other normal cells in the body.
There are several types of targeted therapies against...

Cancer therapies are various modes of treatment, such as surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy that are administered to cancer patients.
However, cancer treatments can pose several challenges, as therapies used to kill cancer cells are generally also toxic to normal cells. Moreover, cancer cells mutate rapidly and can develop resistance to chemical agents or radiation therapy. Besides, all types of cancer cells may not respond to the same therapy. Some cancer cells respond to one...

MicroRNA (miRNA) are short, regulatory RNA transcribed from introns (non-coding regions of a gene) or intergenic regions (stretches of DNA present between genes). Several processing steps are required to form biologically active, mature miRNA. The initial transcript, called primary miRNA (pri-mRNA), base-pairs with itself, forming a stem-loop structure. Within the nucleus, an endonuclease enzyme, called Drosha, shortens the stem-loop structure into hairpin-shaped pre-miRNA. After the pre-miRNA...

Splicing is the process by which eukaryotic RNA is edited before its translation into protein. The RNA strand transcribed from eukaryotic DNA is called the primary transcript. The primary transcripts that become mRNAs are called precursor messenger RNAs (pre-mRNAs). Eukaryotic pre-mRNA contains alternating sequences of exons and introns. Exons are nucleotide sequences that code for proteins, whereas introns are the non-coding regions. In RNA splicing, introns are removed and exons are bonded...