Targeted Cleavage of HIV Rev Response Element RNA by Metallopeptide Complexes

摘要

Viruses mediate a variety of infectious diseases; however,an effective cure remains elusive.In the case of AIDS,frequent mutation of the viral genome makes treatment even more challenging.RNA is the genetic material for retroviruses.Since there is no cellular RNA repair system,RNA has been seen as a viable drug target for more than a decade.Anti-sense recognition is a widely employed RNA targeting strategy,and efforts have been made to elaborate RNA interference (based on antisense targeting) into a pharmaceutical reality.However,the 2'-hydroxyl group protection required in RNA synthesis,the instability of RNA,and the challenge of cellular delivery have limited the practical applications of this technique.Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) derivatives have found increasing use in antisense recognition strategies but also face synthetic and solubility difficulties.In addition,as a consequence of the complex secondary and tertiary structures of the anti-sense and target molecules,recognition may not occur as expected.