Patent ID: 8426375

Claim:
A method for therapeutically treating a vertebrate having a disease mediated by TLR7, TLR8 and/or TLR9 that is Lyme disease, ocular infections, conjunctivitis, scleroderma, cardiovascular disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, transplant rejection, chronic inflammation, behçet's disease, hypersensitivities, reperfusion injury, or uveitis, such method comprising administering to the vertebrate a pharmaceutically effective amount of an immune regulatory oligonucleotide (IRO) compound comprising at least two oligonucleotides linked by a non-nucleotide linker at their 3′ ends or by a functionalized sugar or by a functionalized nucleobase via a non-nucleotide linker, wherein at least one oligonucleotide has the structure 5-N m -N 3 N 2 N 1 CGN 1 N 2 N 3 -N m -3′: wherein: CG is an oligonucleotide motif that is CpG, C*pG, C*pG* or CpG*, wherein C is cytosine, C* is a pyrimidine nucleotide derivative, G is guanosine, and G* is a purine nucleotide derivative; N 1 is a modified nucleotide that suppresses the activity of the oligonucleotide motif selected from the group consisting of 2′-substituted ribonucleoside, 2′-O-substituted ribonucleoside, 2′-substituted arabinoside, and 2′-O-substituted arabinoside; N 2 -N 3 , at each occurrence, is independently i) a nucleotide, ii) a nucleotide derivative, or iii) a modified nucleotide that suppresses the activity of the oligonucleotide motif selected from the group consisting of 2′-substituted ribonucleoside, 2′-O-substituted ribonucleoside, 2′-substituted arabinoside, and 2′-O-substituted arabinoside; N 1 -N 3 , at each occurrence, is independently i) a nucleotide or ii) a nucleotide derivative; N m and N m , at each occurrence, is independently a nucleotide, nucleotide derivative or non-nucleotide linkage; and provided that the compound contains less than 3 consecutive guanosine nucleotides; wherein the oligonucleotide motif would be immune stimulatory but for the one or more modified nucleotides that suppress the activity of the oligonucleotide motif; wherein m is a number from 0 to about 30; and wherein the IRO is an antagonist of an agonist of TLR7, TLR8 and/or TLR9; provided that the at least two oligonucleotides are not antisense oligonucleotides.