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Albumin-Binding Fatty Acid-Modified Gapmer Antisense Oligonucleotides for Modulation of Pharmacokinetics

Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/proceedingBook chapterResearchpeer-review

  • Yunpeng Cai
  • ,
  • Chenguang Lou, University of Southern Denmark
  • ,
  • Jesper Wengel, University of Southern Denmark
  • ,
  • Kenneth A. Howard

Prolonged circulation and modulation of the pharmacokinetic profile are important to improve the clinical potential of antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs). Gapmer ASOs demonstrate excellent nuclease stability and robust gene silencing activity without the requirement of transfection agents. A major challenge for in vivo applications, however, is the short blood circulatory half-life. This work describes utilization of the long circulation of serum albumin to increase the blood residence time of gapmer ASOs. The method introduces fatty acid modifications into the gapmer ASOs design to exploit the binding and transport property of serum albumin for endogenous ligands. The level of albumin-gapmer ASOs interaction, blood circulatory half-life and biodistribution was dependent on number, position, and fatty acid type (palmitic or myristic acid) within the gapmer ASO sequence and either phosphorothioate or phosphodiester backbone modifications. This work offers a strategy to optimize gapmer ASO pharmacokinetics by a proposed endogenous assembly process with serum albumin that can be tuned by gapmer ASO design modifications.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication Gapmers : Methods and Protocols
EditorsToshifumi Yokota, Rika Maruyama
Number of pages12
PublisherHumana Press
Publication year2020
Pages163-174
ISBN (print)978-1-0716-0770-1
ISBN (Electronic)978-1-0716-0771-8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
SeriesMethods in Molecular Biology
Volume2176
ISSN1064-3745

    Research areas

  • Circulatory half-life, Gapmer antisense oligonucleotides, Myristic acid, Palmitic acid, Pharmacokinetics, Serum albumin

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