Patent ID: 8318686

Claim:
A method comprising the step of inducing at least one of pre-cancer cell death or cancer cell death in cells or tissues by contacting at least one of cancer cells and pre-cancer cells with one or more compounds or oligonucleotides of 10 to 50 nucleobases in length which is sufficiently complementary to a mitochondrial chimeric RNA molecule comprising: (a) a sense 16S mitochondrial ribosomal RNA covalently linked at its 5′ end to the 3′ end of an inverted repeat sequence which is a segment of an antisense 16S mitochondrial RNA, or (b) the antisense 16S mitochondrial RNA, covalently linked at its 5′ end to the 3′ end of an inverted repeat sequence which is a segment of the sense 16S mitochondrial ribosomal RNA, such that the compounds or oligonucleotides are able to hybridize with the mitochondrial chimeric RNA molecule to form a stable duplex and thereby induce at least one of pre-cancer cell death or cancer cell death in cells or tissues.