Oligonucleoside cleavage compounds and therapies

Abstract

Methods and compounds for selective cleavage of nucleic acid are described. The compounds generally contain three functionalities: (1) an oligonucleoside portion which is substantially complementary to at least a portion of the target nucleic acid, thereby providing selectivity to the compound; (2) a non-complementary portion which replaces one of the otherwise-complementary nucleoside bases in the oligonucleoside and which serves to place the target nucleic acid strand into a conformation that favors the cleavage of a phosphodiester linkage opposite the non-complementary portion; and (3) a cleavage moiety which possesses one or more and preferably two or more of the features of (a) proton donation, (b) proton acceptance, (c) hydrogen bonding, (d) charge neutralization and (e) Lewis acidity. These compounds may be used for the study and treatment of diseases involving foreign genetic materials or alterations to or inappropriate expression of genomic DNA.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.