Activation of "caged" oligonucleotides by red light

光诱导基因敲除是确定和控制基因功能的一种有效方法。在这种方法中，使用了寡核苷酸，其与核酸的结合是由光触发的(笼子状的)寡核苷酸。光诱导基因敲除的全部潜力还没有完全实现，因为只有紫外光敏感的“笼子”试剂可用。紫外线具有很强的致突变性和毒性。这些副作用掩盖了“关在笼子里”的寡核苷酸的特定生物活性。利用无毒的红光可以实现基因敲除的光引发，该方法将在分子生物学和医学中得到更广泛的应用。特别是，触发基因敲除可以在组织的深层区域进行，因为红光被细胞成分吸收得很弱。相比之下，紫外线被细胞中丰富的蛋白质和核酸强烈吸收，因此它可能只影响组织的表面区域。该项目的目的是获得“笼式”试剂(DNA和RNAs)，其生物活性(反义或RNAi)可通过暴露在红光下触发。

Light-induced gene knockdown is a powerful approach for determination and control of gene functions. In this method oligonucleotides are used, whose binding to nucleic acids is triggered by light (“caged” oligonucleotides). The full potential of light-induced gene knockdown is not yet fully realized, because only UV-light sensitive “caged” reagents are available. UV-light is highly mutagenic and toxic. These side effects mask specific biological activity of “caged” oligonucleotides. Providing photoinitiation of gene knockdown could be done using non-toxic red light, the method would find much broader applications in molecular biology and medicine. In particular, triggering gene-knockdown could be performed in deep regions of tissues, since red light is weakly absorbed by cellular components. In contrast, UV-light is strongly absorbed by e.g. abundant proteins and nucleic acids in cells, therefore it may affect only surface regions of tissues. The aim of this project is to obtain “caged” reagents (DNAs and RNAs), whose biological activity (antisense or RNAi) can be triggered by exposure to red light.