About this Research Topic
Most approved drug therapies principally target the proteins that are involved with, or responsible for, a particular associated disease. The recent so-called “RNA revolution” focuses the attention on RNA and its many functions, including within multiple disease states, positioning RNA molecules as a large class of promising novel drug targets.
RNAs have long been considered undruggable, due to their flexible conformation and the resulting difficulty in their binding pocket identification. Moreover, current approaches used to develop protein-targeting small molecules are ill-suited for RNA, requiring new dedicated experimental and computational methods for drug development. However, over the last decade some small molecules principally targeting miRNA have been reported, and also antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), aptamers, small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), CpG-oligos and decoys, have been successful as therapies in a few cases.
Small molecules efficiently inhibit RNAs, as well as the use of ASOs, aptamers, siRNAs miRNAs, CpG-oligos and decoys, all of which are of great therapeutic and research interest. The development of RNA-dedicated experimental and computational methods, however, remains challenging. Another challenge will be overcoming the problem of specificity and selectivity, which remains a major barrier for RNA-binding molecules.
This research Topic will focus on novel computational and experimental approaches involving nucleic acids (NA) as drug targets, as well as nucleic acids as drugs themselves (with a focus on RNA), possibly in different types of complexes such as protein-nucleic acid (PNi) and nucleic acid-nucleic acid (NNi).
This research Topic accepts Original Research articles, Perspectives and Reviews. Topic interests include, but are not limited to the following:
• Experimental methods for the study of NA, PNi and NNi complexes.
• Theoretical approaches for the study of NA, PNi and NNi complexes.
• Computational and experimental methods for development or identification of drugs, like small molecule targeting RNA or nucleotides.
• Development or identification of antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), aptamers, small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), CpG-oligos and decoys.
RNAs have long been considered undruggable, due to their flexible conformation and the resulting difficulty in their binding pocket identification. Moreover, current approaches used to develop protein-targeting small molecules are ill-suited for RNA, requiring new dedicated experimental and computational methods for drug development. However, over the last decade some small molecules principally targeting miRNA have been reported, and also antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), aptamers, small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), CpG-oligos and decoys, have been successful as therapies in a few cases.
Small molecules efficiently inhibit RNAs, as well as the use of ASOs, aptamers, siRNAs miRNAs, CpG-oligos and decoys, all of which are of great therapeutic and research interest. The development of RNA-dedicated experimental and computational methods, however, remains challenging. Another challenge will be overcoming the problem of specificity and selectivity, which remains a major barrier for RNA-binding molecules.
This research Topic will focus on novel computational and experimental approaches involving nucleic acids (NA) as drug targets, as well as nucleic acids as drugs themselves (with a focus on RNA), possibly in different types of complexes such as protein-nucleic acid (PNi) and nucleic acid-nucleic acid (NNi).
This research Topic accepts Original Research articles, Perspectives and Reviews. Topic interests include, but are not limited to the following:
• Experimental methods for the study of NA, PNi and NNi complexes.
• Theoretical approaches for the study of NA, PNi and NNi complexes.
• Computational and experimental methods for development or identification of drugs, like small molecule targeting RNA or nucleotides.
• Development or identification of antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), aptamers, small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), CpG-oligos and decoys.
Keywords: RNA, novel drug targets, protein-targeting small molecules, miRNA, antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), aptamers, small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), CpG-oligos, decoys, RNA-binding molecules, protein-nucleic acid (PNi), nucleic acid-nucleic (NNi)
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