Abstract
Getting right to the point of this review: I can highly recommend this book. The only criticism I have of the book would be about the title. The book actually covers much more than just antisense approaches, including additional topics such as small interfering RNA (siRNA), immunomodulation, and aptamer technologies; a better name (actually used within the book) might have been Oligonucleotide-Based Therapeutics, but then it would not have been the second edition.
The book could be used by project managers in the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry as a guide to the steps and hurdles to be taken in developing a drug. The book covers all stages of drug development, with chapters related to target selection, screening, medicinal chemistry, formulation, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, and even issues encountered during manufacturing. The book also describes new applications, such as oligonucleotide-based therapeutics for applications such as immunomodulation and aptamers for target binding. In fact, the development of these novel applications derives from observations made during the development of earlier generation oligonucleotide therapeutics and the tenacity of researchers to explain observations made with such earlier molecules. These efforts andthe understanding they have given researchers about the use of oligonucleotide-based therapies will greatly facilitate the development of siRNA therapies.
As a screening scientist,Chapter 5 gives me great pleasure,with its well-written description of how screening and testing are required to identify the optimal oligonucleotide.Screening is still required even with the ability to design antisense molecules from just the nucleotide sequence of the target RNA.
It is obvious that a vast amount of editorial work went into the assembly and design of this book, as the chapters all read well with a consistent style without adhering to any template or “cookie-cutter” layout. The reviews are up to date, with many reporting unpublished or very recent publications (insome chapters, references less than a year old are included, which for a multiauthor book implies impressive editorial and publishing speed). I was only able to find 1 editorial lapse (a missing reference) in all of the chapters I was able to read in detail.
I hope this book proves to be a commercial success and that a third edition can be added to the series in the future. The field of oligonucleotide-targeted therapeutics is moving into exciting times, and such an edition could cover recent results from clinical trials by Genta, Isis, and other companies. Also, a chapter from a representative of the Food and Drug Administration, or other regulatory agencies, explaining what will be required for registration of such a treatment could be included. The results from other therapies targeting RNA will also soon be available, including the findings from PTC Therapeutics,with their compounds PTC124 and PTC299, that apparently modulate mRNA metabolism by small molecules.