Prospects for nucleic acid-based therapeutics against hepatitis C virus

Table 1 Nucleic acid-based anti-hepatitis C virus therapeutics

Class	Mode of action	Target	Status
Hairpin ribozyme	Cleave target RNAs	5'-UTR[24,28], 3'-UTR[28], and core region[24]	Tested in in vitro[24] and in cell culture model[28]
HDV ribozyme		5'-UTR[30]	Tested in in vitro
Hammerhead ribozyme (Hepatozyme)		5'-UTR[33-35]	Completion of phase II
DNAzyme		5'-UTR[41], core and NS5B region[39,40]	Tested in in vitro and in cell culture model
RNase P		5'-UTR[45-47]
Splicing riboyme	Selectively replace target RNAs with desirable RNAs	5'-UTR[51]
Allosteric ribozyme	Inhibit HCV replication[54] or cleave HCV RNA[31] through recognizing ligands	miR-122[54] and 5'-UTR[31]
Aptamer	Bind to target molecule and function as decoys and/or inhibitors	NS3[68-70]
		NS5B[75-78]
		E1E2[79]
		Viral RNA[80,81]
RNAi	Target RNA cleavage or translation inhibition	5'-UTR and 3'-UTR[93-96,100-102]
		Protein coding regions[103-109]
Antisense oligonucleotide	Bind to complementary RNAs and suppress the access to cellular machinery, thereby inhibiting expression or function of the targeted RNAs	5'-UTR[134-137]	Completion of Phase II
AntimiR	Block miRNA activity	miR-122[19,138]	Completion of Phase II