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Antisense Inhibition of Bacterial Gene Expression and Cell Growth

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Peptide Nucleic Acids

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 208))

Abstract

Antisense agents are very attractive for research and therapeutics development because they offer possibilities to inhibit any gene using simple design rules. In practice, however, antisense design is very difficult and clinical progress has been only sporadic. Fortunately, new nucleic acid analogs and mimics such as peptide nucleic acid (PNA) have been developed and these greatly improve the prospects for therapeutic development (1). In this chapter we describe antisense PNAs that inhibit bacterial genes. This area of antisense technology attracts relatively little attention (26), however, bacteria are accessible to antisense inhibition and PNA chemistry in particular gives some important advantages (7). There are strong motivations to pursue this work, including the need for new types of antimicrobials for medicine and also research needs for flexible tools for genetic analyses of diverse bacteria. So far, our attempts to develop antisense PNAs for bacteria have been very encouraging (24).

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© 2002 Humana Press Inc.

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Good, L. (2002). Antisense Inhibition of Bacterial Gene Expression and Cell Growth. In: Nielsen, P.E. (eds) Peptide Nucleic Acids. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 208. Springer, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-290-2:237

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-290-2:237

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-976-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-290-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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