Oligonucleotides as transcription factor decoys.

Cellular and molecular research has been focused to develop a means to regulate gene expression in an effort to treat and cure a variety of diseases and abnormal physiological conditions. A successful oligonucleotide-based approach has been the use of synthetic oligonucleotides containing an enhancer element that can penetrate cells, bind sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins and interfere with transcription in vivo. This review describes such decoy oligonucleotides that exhibit high affinity for a target transcription factor and successfully interfere with transcription in vivo. Evidence presented here shows that the decoy oligonucleotide technology offers great promise as a tool for defining cellular regulatory processes and for treating cancer, viral diseases and other pathological conditions.