Nucleic acid drugs are nucleotide analogues that can act at the gene level and have great potential in the treatment of cancer, viral infections and other diseases. The effects of conventional therapies are usually short-lived because they target proteins rather than underlying genes. In contrast, nucleic acid therapies can achieve long-term efficacy through gene inhibition, addition, replacement or editing. The main nucleic acid drugs that are currently used more often include DNA drugs, mRNA drugs, and siRNA drugs.
Taking SiRNA as an example, its API is produced by chemical synthesis method. After linking the nucleic acid monomers to the required sequence and length one by one through the automatic oligonucleotide synthesis apparatus, the linkage of the oligonucleotide chain to the solid-phase carrier is excised and all kinds of protections are removed through several steps of deprotection reactions, after which the single-stranded intermediates need to be further obtained through purification, ultrafiltration and lyophilisation. Afterwards, the obtained nucleotides of the positive and antisense chains are proportionally annealed to hybridise into a double strand, then lyophilised and packaged to obtain the siRNA API product. yocell can provide support for the synthesis and purification of oligonucleotides.
