Antisense oligonucleotides

Patent Pending Antisense oligonucleotides are single strands of DNA or RNA that are complementary to a chosen sequence. In the case of antisense RNA they prevent protein translation of certain messenger RNA strands by binding to them. Antisense DNA can be used to target a specific, complementary (coding or non-coding) RNA. If binding takes place this DNA/RNA hybrid can be degraded by the enzyme RNase H. The use of morpholino-antisense oligonucleotides for gene knockdowns in vertebrates, which is now a standard technique in developmental biology and is used to study altered gene expression and gene function, was first developed by Janet Heasman using Xenopus.