申请人:Wengel Jesper
公开号:US20100056768A1
公开(公告)日:2010-03-04
The present invention is directed to RNA oligonucleotides or complexes of RNA oligonucleotides, denoted herein together as RNA complexes, containing at least one, but optionally more that one, hydroxymethyl substituted nucleotide monomer(s). By a hydroxymethyl substituted nucleotide monomer is understood a nucleotide monomer containing a hydroxymethyl group (that may be unsubstituted, O-substituted for example with a conjugating group, or converted into an optionally substituted or conjugated aminomethyl group). This hydroxymethyl group is not partaking in formation of an internucleotide linkage and is not the hydroxymethyl group (containing the 5′-hydroxy group) of a natural RNA monomer. The RNA complexes of the invention may be useful for therapeutic applications, diagnostic applications or research applications. The complexes include short interfering RNA complexes (siRNA duplexes) comprising an antisense strand and a continued or a discontinued passenger strand (“sense strand”) capable of regulating gene expression. At least one of these strands, possible more than one of these strands, are modified with one or more hydroxymethyl substituted nucleotide monomer(s) of this invention, that can be positioned at the 3′-end, at the 5′-end or internally. The RNA complexes of the invention can also be single stranded RNA oligonucleotides (“RNA strands”) that are modified with at least one, but optionally more that one, hydroxymethyl substituted nucleotide monomer(s). Such single stranded RNA strands are to be considered included whenever the term RNA complexes is used in this patent application. The complexes of the invention display enhanced stability towards nucleolytic degradation relative to the corresponding complexes comprised entirely from natural RNA monomers.
本发明涉及RNA寡核苷酸或RNA寡核苷酸复合物,统称为RNA复合物,其中至少含有一个,但可选地含有多个羟甲基取代的核苷酸单体。羟甲基取代的核苷酸单体是指含有羟甲基基团(可以是未取代的,例如与共轭基取代的O-取代的,或者转化为可选取代或共轭的氨甲基基团)的核苷酸单体。该羟甲基基团不参与核苷酸之间的连接形成,并且不是天然RNA单体中含有5'-羟基基团的羟甲基基团。本发明的RNA复合物可用于治疗应用、诊断应用或研究应用。这些复合物包括短干扰RNA复合物(siRNA双链体),包括一个反义链和一个持续或中断的载体链(“正义链”),能够调节基因表达。这些链中至少有一条,可能有多条,被本发明的一个或多个羟甲基取代的核苷酸单体修饰,可以位于3'-端、5'-端或内部。本发明的RNA复合物还可以是单链RNA寡核苷酸(“RNA链”),其中至少含有一个,但可选地含有多个羟甲基取代的核苷酸单体。只要在本专利申请中使用了“RNA复合物”一词,就应该包括这样的单链RNA链。与完全由天然RNA单体组成的相应复合物相比,本发明的复合物表现出对核酸酶降解的增强稳定性。