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The asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPr) and N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) is one of the most reliable receptor-ligand combinations for delivering antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) to the liver. Here, we show that a modular GalNAc conjugation strategy allows us to reinforce the activity of the parent, naked 2′,4′-BNA/LNA gapmer targeting apolipoprotein B. The conjugation partly reduced a possible hepatotoxicity of the parent ASO. The structure-activity study revealed the significance of the metabolic susceptibility of the GalNAc moiety to nucleolytic cleavage that results in exposure of the parent gapmer. The broad usefulness of our delivery strategy of ASOs to the liver has been demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The duplex stability with target mRNA and the gene silencing potential of a novel bridged nucleic acid analogue are described. The analogue, 2',4'-BNANC antisense oligonucleotides (AONs) ranging from 10- to 20-nt-long, targeted apolipoprotein B. 2',4'- BNANC was directly compared to its conventional bridged (or locked) nucleic acid (2',4'-BNA/LNA)-based counterparts. Melting temperatures of duplexes formed between 2',4'-BNANC-based antisense oligonucleotides and the target mRNA surpassed those of 2',4'-BNA/LNA-based counterparts at all lengths. An in vitro transfection study revealed that when compared to the identical length 2',4'-BNA/LNA-based counterpart, the corresponding 2',4'-BNANC-based antisense oligonucleotide showed significantly stronger inhibitory activity. This inhibitory activity was more pronounced in shorter (13-, 14-, and 16-mer) oligonucleotides. On the other hand, the 2',4'-BNANC-based 20-mer AON exhibited the highest affinity but the worst IC50 value, indicating that very high affinity may undermine antisense potency. These results suggest that the potency of AONs requires a balance between reward term and penalty term. Balance of these two parameters would depend on affinity, length, and the specific chemistry of the AON, and fine-tuning of this balance could lead to improved potency. We demonstrate that 2',4'-BNANC may be a better alternative to conventional 2',4'-BNA/LNA, even for "short" antisense oligonucleotides, which are attractive in terms of drug-likeness and cost-effective bulk production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oligonucleotide drugs (ODs) have gained increasing attention owing to their promising therapeutic potential. One major obstacle that ODs have been facing is the lack of appropriate in vitro validation systems that can predict in vivo activity and toxicity. We have devised a transfection method called CEM (Ca 2+ -enrichment method), where the simple enrichment of calcium ion with calcium chloride in culture medium potentiates the activity of various types of naked oligonucleotides including gapmers, siRNA, and phosphorodiamidate morpholino antisense oligonucleotides (PMO) in many cultured cell lines with limited cytotoxicity. We here describe a precise procedure of the method. Besides the benefit of the CEM's predictive power to accurately estimate in vivo activity of ODs of your interest in drug discovery and development settings, this cost-efficient, easy-to-access method can be a robust laboratory technique to modulate gene expressions with ODs with a variety of mechanisms of action.

Antisense oligonucleotides are attractive therapeutic agents for several types of disease. One of the most promising modifications of antisense oligonucleotides is the introduction of bridged nucleic acids. As we report here, we designed novel bridged nucleic acids, triazole-bridged nucleic acid (TrNA), and tetrazole-bridged nucleic acid (TeNA), whose sugar conformations are restricted to N-type by heteroaromatic ring-bridged structures. We then successfully synthesized TrNA and TeNA and introduced these monomers into oligonucleotides. In UV-melting experiments, TrNA-modified oligonucleotides exhibited increased binding affinity toward complementary RNA and decreased binding affinity toward complementary DNA, although TeNA-modified oligonucleotides were decomposed under the annealing conditions. Enzymatic degradation experiments demonstrated that introduction of TrNA at the 3'-terminus rendered oligonucleotides resistant to nuclease digestion. Furthermore, we tested the silencing potencies of TrNA-modified antisense oligonucleotides using in vitro and in vivo assays. These experiments revealed that TrNA-modified antisense oligonucleotides induced potent downregulation of gene expression in liver. In addition, TrNA-modified antisense oligonucleotides showed a tendency for increased liver biodistribution. Taken together, our findings indicate that TrNA is a good candidate for practical application in antisense methodology.

Antisense and RNAi-related oligonucleotides have gained attention as laboratory tools and therapeutic agents based on their ability to manipulate biological events in vitro and in vivo. We show that Ca(2+) enrichment of medium (CEM) potentiates the in vitro activity of multiple types of oligonucleotides, independent of their net charge and modifications, in various cells. In addition, CEM reflects in vivo silencing activity more consistently than conventional transfection methods. Microscopic analysis reveals that CEM provides a subcellular localization pattern of oligonucleotides resembling that obtained by unassisted transfection, but with quantitative improvement. Highly monodispersed nanoparticles ~100 nm in size are found in Ca(2+)-enriched serum-containing medium regardless of the presence or absence of oligonucleotides. Transmission electron microscopy analysis reveals that the 100-nm particles are in fact an ensemble of much smaller nanoparticles (ϕ ∼ 15 nm). The presence of these nanoparticles is critical for the efficient uptake of various oligonucleotides. In contrast, CEM is ineffective for plasmids, which are readily transfected via the conventional calcium phosphate method. Collectively, CEM enables a more accurate prediction of the systemic activity of therapeutic oligonucleotides, while enhancing the broad usability of oligonucleotides in the laboratory., (© The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.)