Hydroxymethyl substituted rna oligonucleotides and rna complexes

Abstract

The present invention is directed to RNA oligonucleotides or complexes of RNA oligonucleotides, denoted herein together as RNA complexes, containing at least one, but optionally more that one, hydroxymethyl substituted nucleotide monomer(s). By a hydroxymethyl substituted nucleotide monomer is understood a nucleotide monomer containing a hydroxymethyl group (that may be unsubstituted, O-substituted for example with a conjugating group, or converted into an optionally substituted or conjugated aminomethyl group). This hydroxymethyl group is not partaking in formation of an internucleotide linkage and is not the hydroxymethyl group (containing the 5′-hydroxy group) of a natural RNA monomer. The RNA complexes of the invention may be useful for therapeutic applications, diagnostic applications or research applications.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.