February 6, 2012 – 6:00 am
New RNA-based therapeutic strategies for controlling gene expression - Small RNA-based nucleic acid drugs represent a promising new class of therapeutic agents for silencing abnormal or overactive disease-causing genes, and researchers have discovered new mechanisms by which RNA drugs can control gene activity. A comprehensive review article in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., details these advances.
January 22, 2012 – 12:00 am
Scripps Research Scientists Create Novel RNA Repair Technology - Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified a compound that can help repair a specific type of defect in RNA, a type of genetic material. The methods in the new study could accelerate the development of therapeutics to treat a variety of incurable diseases such as Huntington’s disease, Spinocerebellar ataxia, and Kennedy disease. The new study, published January 17, 2012 in an advance, online edition of the journal ACS Chemical Biology, describes a method to find compounds that target defective RNAs, specifically RNA that carries a structural motif known as an “expanded triplet repeat.” The triplet repeat, a series of three nucleotides repeated many more times than normal in the genetic code of affected individuals, has been associated with a variety of neurological and neuromuscular disorders.
September 3, 2011 – 3:00 am
Adenine pathways: UV protection racket - A collaboration between teams in Germany and the US has shown that one of the building blocks of the nucleic acids DNA and RNA, adenine, has a previously unrecognised variable range of ionization energies along its reaction pathways. The finding could improve our understanding of experimental data regarding how adenine survives exposure to ultraviolet light, showing that the processes might be more complicated than previously thought. However, it also has potentially far-reaching implications for spectroscopic measurements of other heterocyclic compounds.
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