EN
Antisense oligonucleotides (asODN) have recently been used to block specific gene expression in the rodent brain.Their target include subunits of receptors for neurotransmitters, neuropeptides and transcription factors, i.e., those proteins,whose other blocker are not known.Succesful applications of the as ODN require good understanding of their pharmacokinetics, mechanisms of action and side effects in the brain.Unfortunately, very little is known in this regard.Both intraventricular and intrastructure route of administration of phosphorodiester (0-ODN) and phosphorothioate (S-ODN) ODN to the brain were effectvely employed.However doses used,even in the case of the same analog, differ up to two orders of magnitude.Since translation arrest is belived to be an effective mechanism of ODN activity in the brain, most of the authors target the ODN to the mRNA region including the translation codon, but there are most no studies of the target mRNA levels.The paper reviews the recent development in this field, offering critical evaluation of the data.