[Development of RNA medicine using 4'-thioDNA]

Abstract

A number of modified oligonucleotides prepared using a general chemical approach with the corresponding phosphoramidite units have been synthesized to evaluate their functions. An alternative enzymatic method using the corresponding nucleoside triphosphates could also be used. Since this approach affords long-chain sequences from readily available natural DNA templates, if successful it would be useful in numerous biotechnologies. This review summarizes our current results of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of 4'-thioDNA using 4'-thio-dNTPs and gene silencing using the resulting 4'-thioDNAs as a template arising from 4'-thioDNA-directed transcription in mammalian cells.