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Development of Therapeutic dsP21-322 for Cancer Treatment

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RNA Activation

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 983))

Abstract

Small activating RNAs (saRNAs) are a class of artificially designed short duplex RNAs targeted at the promoter of a particular gene to upregulate its expression via a mechanism known as RNA activation (RNAa) and hold great promise for treating a wide variety of diseases including those undruggable by conventional therapies. The therapeutic benefits of saRNAs have been demonstrated in a number of preclinical studies carried out in different disease models including cancer. With many tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) downregulated due to either epigenetic mechanisms or haploinsufficiency resulting from deletion/mutation, cancer is an ideal disease space for saRNA therapeutics which can restore the expression of TSGs via epigenetic reprogramming. The p21WAF1/CIP gene is a TSG frequently downregulated in cancer and an saRNA for p21WAF1/CIP known as dsP21-322 has been identified to be a sequence-specific p21WAF1/CIP activator in a number of cancer types. In this chapter, we review preclinical development of medicinal dsP21-322 for cancer, especially prostate cancer and bladder cancer, and highlight its potential for further clinical development.

Moo Rim Kang and Gongcheng Li contributed equally to this work.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Ractigen Therapeutics, Nantong, China

      Moo Rim Kang

    2. Department of Urology, Wuhan General Hospital, Guangzhou Command PLA, Wuhan, China

      Gongcheng Li & Tiejun Pan

    3. Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

      Jin-Chun Xing & Long-Cheng Li

    4. Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China

      Long-Cheng Li

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    1. Moo Rim Kang
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    2. Gongcheng Li
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    Correspondence to Long-Cheng Li .

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    1. Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China

      Long-Cheng Li

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    Kang, M.R., Li, G., Pan, T., Xing, JC., Li, LC. (2017). Development of Therapeutic dsP21-322 for Cancer Treatment. In: Li, LC. (eds) RNA Activation. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 983. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4310-9_16

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