Renal Delivery of Antisense Oligodeoxynucleotides

In view of the preferential distribution of some AS-ODNs to the kidney the oligonucleotide backbone could even be employed for renal-specific drug delivery because of both their intrinsic activity and the potential of coupling of other agents to them. 

we will briefly review the different aspects that are of importance in the use of anti-sense for in vivo therapy. Second, we will describe the effects of antisense targeting to the proximal tubule of the kidney that have been obtained so far. 

AS-ODN are designed to be complementary to the coding (sense) sequence of the mRNA in the cell. After hybridization to target sequences, translational arrest occurs via one of several putative mechanisms. The first mechanism is inhibition of transcription. Secondly, AS-ODN can prevent the synthesis of fully mature mRNA in the cytosol at the level of splicing. 

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