Oligonucleotide analogues

Details Oligonucleotide analogues Oligonucleotide analogues

1998-09-11

2004-09-21

Riley, Jezia (Department: 1637)

Organic compounds -- part of the class 532-570 series

Organic compounds

Carbohydrates or derivatives

C536S022100, C536S024300, C536S025300, C514S001000, C514S04400A

Reexamination Certificate

active

06794499

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of bi- and tricyclic nucleoside analogues and to the synthesis of such nucleoside analogues which are useful in the formation of synthetic oligonucleotides capable of forming nucleobase specific duplexes and triplexes with single stranded and double stranded nucleic acids. These complexes exhibit higher thermostability than the corresponding complexes formed with normal nucleic acids. The invention also relates to the field of bi- and tricyclic nucleoside analogues and the synthesis of such nucleosides which may be used as therapeutic drugs and which may be incorporated in oligonucleotides by template dependent nucleic acid polymerases.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Synthetic oligonucleotides are widely used compounds in disparate fields such as molecular biology and DNA-based diagnostics and therapeutics.
Therapeutics
In therapeutics, e.g., oligonucleotides have been used successfully to block translation in vivo of specific mRNAs thereby preventing the synthesis of proteins which are undesired or harmful to the cell/organism. This concept of oligonucleotide mediated blocking of translation is known as the “antisense” approach. Mechanistically, the hybridising oligonucleotide is thought to elicit its effect by either creating a physical block to the translation process or by recruiting cellular enzymes that specifically degrades the mRNA part of the duplex (RNAseH).
More recently, oligoribonucleotides and oligodeoxyribonucleotides and analogues thereof which combine RNAse catalytic activity with the ability to sequence specifically interact with a complementary RNA target (ribozymes) have attracted much interest as antisense probes. Thus far ribozymes have been reported to be effective in cell cultures against both viral targets and oncogenes.
To completely prevent the synthesis of a given protein by the antisense approach it is necessary to block/destroy all mRNAs that encode that particular protein and in many cases the number of these mRNA are fairly large. Typically, the mRNAs that encode a particular protein are transcribed from a single or a few genes. Hence, by targeting the gene (“antigene” approach) rather than its mRNA products it should be possible to either block production of its cognate protein more efficiently or to achieve a significant reduction in the amount of oligonucleotides necessary to elicit the desired effect. To block transcription, the oligonucleotide must be able to hybridise sequence specifically to double stranded DNA. In 1953 Watson and Crick showed that deoxyribo nucleic acid (DNA) is composed of two strands (Nature, 1953, 171, 737) which are held together in a helical configuration by hydrogen bonds formed between opposing complementary nucleobases in the two strands. The four nucleobases, commonly found in DNA are guanine (G), adenine (A), thymine (T) and cytosine (C) of which the G nucleobase pairs with C, and the A nucleobase pairs with T. In RNA the nucleobase thymine is replaced by the nucleobase uracil (U) which similarly to the T nucleobase pairs with A. The chemical groups in the nucleobases that participate in standard duplex formation constitute the Watson-Crick face. In 1959, Hoogsteen showed that the purine nucleobases (G and A) in addition to their Watson-Crick face have a Hoogsteen face that can be recognised from the outside of a duplex, and used to bind pyrimidine oligonucleotides via hydrogen bonding, thereby forming a triple helix structure. Although making the “antigene” approach conceptually feasible the practical usefulness of triple helix forming oligomers is currently limited by several factors including the requirement for homopurine sequence motifs in the target gene and a need for unphysiologically high ionic strength and low pH to stabilise the complex.
The use of oligonucleotides known as aptamers are also being actively investigated. This promising new class of therapeutic oligonucleotides are selected in vitro to specifically bind to a given target with high affinity, such as for example ligand receptors. Their binding characteristics are likely a reflection of the ability of oligonucleotides to form three dimensional structures held together by intramolecular nucleobase pairing.
Likewise, nucleosides and nucleoside analogues have proven effective in chemotherapy of numerous viral infections and cancers.
Also, various types of double-stranded RNAs have been shown to effectively inhibit the growth of several types of cancers.
Diagnostics
In molecular biology, oligonucleotides are routinely used for a variety of purposes such as for example (i) as hybridisation probes in the capture, identification and quantification of target nucleic acids (ii) as affinity probes in the purification of target nucleic acids (iii) as primers in sequencing reactions and target amplification processes such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (iv) to clone and mutate nucleic acids and (vi) as building blocks in the assembly of macromolecular structures.
Diagnostics utilises many of the oligonucleotide based techniques mentioned above in particular those that lend themselves to easy automation and facilitate reproducible results with high sensitivity. The objective in this field is to use oligonucleotide based techniques as a means to, for example (i) tests humans, animals and food for the presence of pathogenic micro-organisms (ii) to test for genetic predisposition to a disease (iii) to identify inherited and acquired genetic disorders, (iv) to link biological deposits to suspects in crime trials and (v) to validate the presence of micro-organisms involved in the production of foods and beverages.
General Considerations
To be useful in the extensive range of different applications outlined above, oligonucleotides have to satisfy a large number of different requirements. In antisense therapeutics, for instance, a useful oligonucleotide must be able to penetrate the cell membrane, have good resistance to extra- and intracellular nucleases and preferably have the ability to recruit endogenous enzymes like RNAseH. In DNA-based diagnostics and molecular biology other properties are important such as, e.g., the ability of oligonucleotides to act as efficient substrates for a wide range of different enzymes evolved to act on natural nucleic acids, such as e.g. polymerases, kinases, ligases and phosphatases. The fundamental property of oligonucleotides, however, which underlies all uses is their ability to recognise and hybridise sequence specifically to complementary single stranded nucleic acids employing either Watson-Crick hydrogen bonding (A-T and G-C) or other hydrogen bonding schemes such as the Hoogsteen mode. The are two important terms affinity and specificity are commonly used to characterise the hybridisation properties of a given oligonucleotide. Affinity is a measure of the binding strength of the oligonucleotide to its complementary target sequence (expressed as the thermostability (T
m
) of the duplex). Each nucleobase pair in the duplex adds to the thermostability and thus affinity increases with increasing size (No. of nucleobases) of the oligonucleotide. Specificity is a measure of the ability of the oligonucleotide to discriminate between a fully complementary and a mismatched target sequence. In other words, specificity is a measure of the loss of affinity associated with mismatched nucleobase pairs in the target. At constant oligonucleotide size the specificity increases with increasing number of mismatches between the oligonucleotide and its targets (i.e. the percentage of mismatches increases). Conversely, specificity decreases when the size of the oligonucleotide is increased at a constant number of mismatches (i.e. the percentage of mismatches decreases). Stated another way, an increase in the affinity of an oligonucleotide occurs at the expense of specificity and vice-versa.
This property of oligonucleotides creates a number of problems for their practical use. In lengthy diagnostic procedures, for instance, the oligonucleotide needs to have both hig

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