The advantages are toxicity specific for the virus and not the host cell and long half-life of the antisense construct compared to traditional antisense oligonucleotides. The present invention demonstrates that antisense inhibitors of RSV can occur effectively in the cytoplasm and that inhibition of mRNA translation is probably not the sole mechanism of the antiviral effect. Cellular expression of antisense RNA may be a promising strategy for the inhibition of other types of cytoplasmic viruses as well. Potential to treat any RNA viral infection in humans where the virus replicates mainly in the cytoplasm. Gene products available for clinical trials of diagnostics.
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