Trinucleotide Cap Analogue Bearing a Locked Nucleic Acid Moiety: Synthesis, mRNA Modification, and Translation for Therapeutic Applications.

The synthesis of a new trinucleotide cap analogue containing a locked nucleic acid (LNA) moiety such as m7(LNA)G(5')ppp(5')AmpG and its molecular biology applications are described. The most appealing feature is that this new cap analogue outperforms the standard trinucleotide cap m7G(5')ppp(5')AmpG and the anti-reverse cap analogue m27,3'-OG(5')ppp(5')G by a factor of 5 in terms of translational efficiency.