Modified Oligonucleotides: New Structures, New Properties, and New Spheres of Application

Multi-dimensional technology - Recent advances and applications for biotherapeutic characterization

This review provides an overview of the latest advancements and applications in multi-dimensional liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (mD-LC-MS), covering aspects such as inter-laboratory studies, digestion strategy, trapping column, and multi-level analysis. The shift from an offline to an online workflow reduces sample processing artifacts, analytical variability, analysis time, and the labor required for data acquisition. Over the past few years, this technique has demonstrated sufficient maturity for application across a diverse range of complex products. Moreover, there is potential for this strategy to evolve into an integrated process analytical technology tool for the real-time monitoring of monoclonal antibody quality. This review also identifies emerging trends, including its application to new modalities, the possibility of evaluating biological activity within the mD-LC set-up, and the consideration of multi-dimensional capillary electrophoresis as an alternative to mD-LC. As mD-LC-MS continues to evolve and integrate emerging trends, it holds the potential to shape the next generation of analytical tools, offering exciting possibilities for enhanced characterization and monitoring of complex biopharmaceutical products.

Non-coding RNA-directed therapeutics in lung cancer: Delivery technologies and clinical applications

Lung cancer is one of the most aggressive and deadliest health threats. There has been an increasing interest in non-coding RNA (ncRNA) recently, especially in the areas of carcinogenesis and tumour progression. However, ncRNA-directed therapies are still encountering obstacles on their way to the clinic. In the present article, we provide an overview on the potential of targeting ncRNA in the treatment of lung cancer. Then, we discuss the delivery challenges and recent approaches enabling the delivery of ncRNA-directed therapies to the lung cancer cells, where we illuminate some advanced technologies including chemically-modified oligonucleotides, nuclear targeting, and three-dimensional in vitro models. Furthermore, advanced non-viral delivery systems recruiting nanoparticles, biomimetic delivery systems, and extracellular vesicles are also highlighted. Lastly, the challenges limiting the clinical trials on the therapeutic targeting of ncRNAs in lung cancer and future directions to tackle them are explored.

Antisense technology as a potential strategy for the treatment of coronaviruses infection: With focus on COVID-19

After the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in December 2019 and the increasing number of SARS-CoV-2 infections all over the world, researchers are struggling to investigate effective therapeutic strategies for the treatment of this infection. Targeting viral small molecules that are involved in the process of infection is a promising strategy. Since many host factors are also used by SARS-CoV-2 during various stages of infection, down-regulating or silencing these factors can serve as an effective therapeutic tool. Several nucleic acid-based technologies including short interfering RNAs, antisense oligonucleotides, aptamers, DNAzymes, and ribozymes have been suggested for the control of SARS-CoV-2 as well as other respiratory viruses. The antisense technology also plays an indispensable role in the treatment of many other diseases including cancer, influenza, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. In this review, we summarised the potential applications of antisense technology for the treatment of coronaviruses and specifically COVID-19 infection.

RNA Aptamers for Theranostics of Glioblastoma of Human Brain

Conventional approaches for studying and molecular typing of tumors include PCR, blotting, omics, immunocytochemistry, and immunohistochemistry. The last two methods are the most used, as they enable detecting both tumor protein markers and their localizations within the cells. In this study, we have investigated a possibility of using RNA aptamers, in particular, 2'-F-pyrimidyl-RNA aptamer ME07 (48 nucleotides long), specific to the receptor of epidermal growth factor (EGFR, ErbB1, Her1), as an alternative to monoclonal antibodies for aptacytochemistry and aptahistochemistry for human glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). A specificity of binding of FAM-ME07 to the receptor on the tumor cells has been demonstrated by flow cytometry; an apparent dissociation constant for the complex of aptamer - EGFR on the cell has been determined; a number of EGFR molecules has been semi-quantitatively estimated for the tumor cell lines having different amount of EGFR: A431 (10⁶ copies per cell), U87 (10⁴ copies per cell), MCF7 (10³ copies per cell), and ROZH, primary GBM cell culture derived from patient (10⁴ copies per cell). According to fluorescence microscopy, FAM-ME07 interacts directly with the receptors on A431 cells, followed by its internalization into the cytoplasm and translocation to the nucleolus; this finding opens a possibility of ME07 application as an escort aptamer for a delivery of therapeutic agents into tumor cells. FAM-ME07 efficiently stains sections of GBM clinical specimens, which enables an identification of EGFR-positive clones within a heterogeneous tumor; and providing a potential for further studying animal models of GBM.