For Immediate Release
New Gene Therapy Method Provides Specific, Safe Control of Therapeutic Transgenes
Contact: Kathryn Ryan
914-740-2250
kryan@liebertpub.com
New Rochelle, NY, July 13, 2015—Korean researchers have described a novel control system to regulate the expression of a therapeutic transgene by targeting the passenger strand of a microRNA (miR-122) linked to the transgene. The researchers report that a control system based on targeting the passenger strand of miR-122 rather than the guide strand can regulate expression of an exogenous, therapeutic gene, while not affecting the expression of endogenous genes, in an article in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers. The article is available free on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website until August 13, 2015.
Sung Jin Kim, Chang Ho Lee, and Seong-Wook Lee, Dankook University, Yongin, Republic of Korea, describe the novel gene therapy control system they developed in the article "Targeting the MicroRNA Passenger Strand for Regulating Therapeutic Transgenes." They compare the results of studies to regulate the expression of a transgene by targeting either the guide or passenger strand of miR-122, and discuss the underlying mechanisms to explain the observed miRNA activity and up- and down-regulation of gene expression.
“This clear and convincing paper proposes a new, safe, and effective approach to regulate therapeutic transgenes,” says Executive Editor Graham C. Parker, PhD, The Carman and Ann Adams Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI.
About the Journal
Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online that focuses on cutting-edge basic research, therapeutic applications, and drug development using nucleic acids or related compounds to alter gene expression. The Journal is under the editorial leadership of Editor-in-Chief Bruce A. Sullenger, PhD, Duke Translational Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, and Executive Editor Graham C. Parker, PhD. Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is the official journal of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website.
About the Society
The Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society is an open, non-profit forum to foster academia- and industry-based research and development of oligonucleotide therapeutics. The society brings together the expertise from different angles of oligonucleotide research to create synergies and to bring the field of oligonucleotides to its full therapeutic potential.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Human Gene Therapy, ASSAY and Drug Development Technologies, Applied In Vitro Toxicology, and DNA and Cell Biology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.