title: Short hairpin-looped oligodeoxynucleotides reduce hepatitis C virus replication.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Persistent infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a leading cause of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Standard therapy consists of a combination of interferon-alpha and ribavirin, but many patients respond poorly, especially those infected with HCV genotypes 1 and 4. Furthermore, standard therapy is associated with severe side-effects. Thus, alternative therapeutic approaches against HCV are needed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Here, we studied the effect of a new class of antiviral agents against HCV, short, partially double-stranded oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs), on viral replication. We targeted the 5' nontranslated region (5' NTR) of the HCV genome that has previously been shown as effective target for small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) in vitro. One of the investigated ODNs, ODN 320, significantly and efficiently reduced replication of HCV replicons in a sequence-, time- and dose-dependent manner. ODN 320 targets a genomic region highly conserved among different HCV genotypes and might thus be able to inhibit a broad range of genotypes and subtypes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  ODNs provide an additional approach for inhibition of HCV, might be superior to siRNAs in terms of stability and cellular delivery, and suitable against HCV resistant to standard therapy. This study underlines the potential of partially double-stranded ODNs as antiviral agents.
authors: University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. felix.broecker@mpikg.mpg.de
authors: Felix
authors: F
authors: Broecker
authors: Karin
authors: K
authors: Moelling
mesh_terms: D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000378:metabolism*; D002460:Cell Line; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000378:metabolism; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D000998:Antiviral Agents; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D012367:RNA, Viral