RNA therapy for polyglutamine neurodegenerative diseases.

Polyglutamine neurodegenerative diseases result from the expansion of a trinucleotide CAG repeat, encoding a polyglutamine tract in the disease-causing protein. The process by which each polyglutamine protein exerts its toxicity is complex, involving a variety of mechanisms including transcriptional...

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Main Authors: Watson, L, Wood, M
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2012
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author Watson, L
Wood, M
author_facet Watson, L
Wood, M
author_sort Watson, L
collection OXFORD
description Polyglutamine neurodegenerative diseases result from the expansion of a trinucleotide CAG repeat, encoding a polyglutamine tract in the disease-causing protein. The process by which each polyglutamine protein exerts its toxicity is complex, involving a variety of mechanisms including transcriptional dysregulation, proteasome impairment and mitochondrial dysfunction. Thus, the most effective and widely applicable therapies are likely to be those designed to eliminate production of the mutant protein upstream of these deleterious effects. RNA-based approaches represent promising therapeutic strategies for polyglutamine diseases, offering the potential to suppress gene expression in a sequence-specific manner at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. In particular, gene silencing therapies capable of discrimination between mutant and wildtype alleles, based on disease-linked polymorphisms or CAG repeat length, might prove crucial in cases where a loss of wild type function is deleterious. Novel methods, such as gene knockdown and replacement, seek to eliminate the technical difficulties associated with allele-specific silencing by avoiding the need to target specific mutations. With a variety of RNA technologies currently being developed to target multiple facets of polyglutamine pathogenesis, the emergence of an effective therapy seems imminent. However, numerous technical obstacles associated with design, discrimination and delivery must be overcome before RNA therapy can be effectively applied in the clinical setting.
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spelling oxford-uuid:0949482a-8361-4755-8e2d-fe93d17108662022-03-26T09:17:31ZRNA therapy for polyglutamine neurodegenerative diseases.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:0949482a-8361-4755-8e2d-fe93d1710866EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2012Watson, LWood, MPolyglutamine neurodegenerative diseases result from the expansion of a trinucleotide CAG repeat, encoding a polyglutamine tract in the disease-causing protein. The process by which each polyglutamine protein exerts its toxicity is complex, involving a variety of mechanisms including transcriptional dysregulation, proteasome impairment and mitochondrial dysfunction. Thus, the most effective and widely applicable therapies are likely to be those designed to eliminate production of the mutant protein upstream of these deleterious effects. RNA-based approaches represent promising therapeutic strategies for polyglutamine diseases, offering the potential to suppress gene expression in a sequence-specific manner at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. In particular, gene silencing therapies capable of discrimination between mutant and wildtype alleles, based on disease-linked polymorphisms or CAG repeat length, might prove crucial in cases where a loss of wild type function is deleterious. Novel methods, such as gene knockdown and replacement, seek to eliminate the technical difficulties associated with allele-specific silencing by avoiding the need to target specific mutations. With a variety of RNA technologies currently being developed to target multiple facets of polyglutamine pathogenesis, the emergence of an effective therapy seems imminent. However, numerous technical obstacles associated with design, discrimination and delivery must be overcome before RNA therapy can be effectively applied in the clinical setting.
spellingShingle Watson, L
Wood, M
RNA therapy for polyglutamine neurodegenerative diseases.
title RNA therapy for polyglutamine neurodegenerative diseases.
title_full RNA therapy for polyglutamine neurodegenerative diseases.
title_fullStr RNA therapy for polyglutamine neurodegenerative diseases.
title_full_unstemmed RNA therapy for polyglutamine neurodegenerative diseases.
title_short RNA therapy for polyglutamine neurodegenerative diseases.
title_sort rna therapy for polyglutamine neurodegenerative diseases
work_keys_str_mv AT watsonl rnatherapyforpolyglutamineneurodegenerativediseases
AT woodm rnatherapyforpolyglutamineneurodegenerativediseases