Treatment of nanog related diseases by inhibition of natural antisense transcript to nanog

A method of modulating a function of and/or the expression of an NANOG polynucleotide in patient cells or tissues in vivo or in vitro comprising:

• contacting said cells or tissues with at least one antisense oligonucleotide 5 to 30 nucleotides in length wherein said oligonucleotide has at least 50% sequence identity to an antisense oligonucleotide to the NANOG polynucleotide;
• thereby modulating a function of and/or the expression of the NANOG polynucleotide in patient cells or tissues in vivo or in vitro.

A method of modulating a function of and/or the expression of an NANOG polynucleotide in a biological system comprising:

• contacting said system with at least one antisense oligonucleotide that targets a region of a natural antisense oligonucleotide of the NANOG polynucleotide;
• thereby modulating a function of and/or the expression of the NANOG polynucleotide.

A method of modulating a function of and/or the expression of an NANOG gene in mammalian cells or tissues in vivo or in vitro comprising:

• contacting said cells or tissues with at least one short interfering RNA (siRNA) oligonucleotide 5 to 30 nucleotides in length, said at least one siRNA oligonucleotide being specific for an antisense polynucleotide of an NANOG polynucleotide, wherein said at least one siRNA oligonucleotide has at least 50% sequence identity to a complementary sequence of at least about five consecutive nucleic acids of the antisense and/or sense nucleic acid molecule of the NANOG polynucleotide;
• and, modulating a function of and/or the expression of NANOG in mammalian cells or tissues in vivo or in vitro.

A method of modulating a function of and/or the expression of NANOG in mammalian cells or tissues in vivo or in vitro comprising:

• contacting said cells or tissues with at least one antisense oligonucleotide of about 5 to 30 nucleotides in length specific for noncoding and/or coding sequences of a sense and/or natural antisense strand of an NANOG polynucleotide wherein said at least one antisense oligonucleotide has at least 50% sequence identity to at least one nucleic acid sequence set forth as SEQ ID NOS:
• 1 and 2;
• and, modulating the function and/or expression of the NANOG in mammalian cells or tissues in vivo or in vitro.

A method of preventing or treating a disease associated with at least one NANOG polynucleotide and/or at least one encoded product thereof, comprising:

• administering to a patient a therapeutically effective dose of at least one antisense oligonucleotide that binds to a natural antisense sequence of said at least one NANOG polynucleotide and modulates expression of said at least one NANOG polynucleotide;
• thereby preventing or treating the disease associated with the at least one NANOG polynucleotide and/or at least one encoded product thereof.

A method of inducing apoptosis in a biological system comprising administration of an oligonucleotide of 5 to 30 nucleotides in length and which is at least 50% identical to 5 to 30 consecutive nucleotides within a reverse complement of a natural antisense transcript to a NANOG polynucleotide to said system.

A method of inducing apoptosis in a biological system comprising administration of an oligonucleotide of about 5 to 30 nucleotides in length to said system wherein said oligonucleotide upregulates a target gene by targeting to a natural antisense transcript of the gene and wherein said oligonucleotide is at least 50% identical to a reverse complement of the natural antisense transcript of the upregulated gene.

A method of identifying and selecting at least one oligonucleotide selective for a natural antisense transcript of an NANOG gene as a selected target polynucleotide for in vivo administration comprising:

• identifying at least one oligonucleotide comprising at least five consecutive nucleotides which are at least partially complementary to a polynucleotide that is antisense to the selected target polynucleotide;
• measuring the thermal melting point of a hybrid of an antisense oligonucleotide and the target polynucleotide or the polynucleotide that is antisense to the selected target polynucleotide under stringent hybridization conditions;
• and selecting at least one oligonucleotide for in vivo administration based on the information obtained.

A method of repairing impaired DNA in a patient comprising administering to the patient a therapeutically effective dose of at least one antisense oligonucleotide that binds to a natural antisense sequence of said at least one NANOG polynucleotide and modulates expression of said at least one NANOG polynucleotide;

• thereby repairing the impaired DNA of said patient.