• Keith T Gagnon, Hannah M Pendergraff, Glen F Deleavey, Eric E Swayze, Pierre Potier, John Randolph, Eric B Roesch, Jyoti Chattopadhyaya, Masad J Damha, C Frank Bennett, Christophe Montaillier, Marc Lemaitre, and David R Corey.
• Department of Pharmacology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, ND8.136B, Dallas, Texas 75390-9041, United States.
• Biochemistry. 2010 Nov 30; 49 (47): 10166-78.

AbstractHuntington's disease (HD) is a currently incurable neurodegenerative disease caused by the expansion of a CAG trinucleotide repeat within the huntingtin (HTT) gene. Therapeutic approaches include selectively inhibiting the expression of the mutated HTT allele while conserving function of the normal allele. We have evaluated a series of antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) targeted to the expanded CAG repeat within HTT mRNA for their ability to selectively inhibit expression of mutant HTT protein. Several ASOs incorporating a variety of modifications, including bridged nucleic acids and phosphorothioate internucleotide linkages, exhibited allele-selective silencing in patient-derived fibroblasts. Allele-selective ASOs did not affect the expression of other CAG repeat-containing genes and selectivity was observed in cell lines containing minimal CAG repeat lengths representative of most HD patients. Allele-selective ASOs left HTT mRNA intact and did not support ribonuclease H activity in vitro. We observed cooperative binding of multiple ASO molecules to CAG repeat-containing HTT mRNA transcripts in vitro. These results are consistent with a mechanism involving inhibition at the level of translation. ASOs targeted to the CAG repeat of HTT provide a starting point for the development of oligonucleotide-based therapeutics that can inhibit gene expression with allelic discrimination in patients with HD.

26 keywords...

hide…