For Immediate Release
Rational Protein Engineering Can Improve Effectiveness of mRNA Therapies
Contact: Kathryn Ryan
914-740-2250
kryan@liebertpub.com
New Rochelle, NY, March 30, 2018—mRNA drugs offer a promising new approach to deliver therapeutic replacement proteins, and novel strategies designed to engineer more stable and active proteins are further enhancing the potential of mRNA therapies. Specific examples of sequence engineering that led to improved expression, duration, and enzymatic activity of target proteins are reported in a study published 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 April 30, 2018.
The article entitled “Leveraging Rational Protein Engineering to Improve mRNA Therapeutics” is coauthored by Romesh Subramanian, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA and colleagues from Alexion, New Haven, CT. The researchers described the methods they used to engineer specific protein sequences and demonstrated the positive effects this had on protein expression in mice. Sequence engineering was also able to improve the thermostability and activity of the therapeutic enzymes.
"Developing protein variants with improved stability and activity should reduce necessary dosing frequency, and hence improve patient compliance” 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 Co-Editors-in-Chief Bruce A. Sullenger, PhD, Duke Translational Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center and Annemieke Aartsma-Rus, PhD, Leiden University Medical Center, 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, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), 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.