Patent Application: US-6847102-A

Abstract:
the present invention relates to dnazymes which are targeted against mrna molecules encoding rela . the present invention also relates to compositions including these dnazymes and to methods of treatment involving administration of the dnazymes .

Description:
the present invention provides dnazymes which specifically target rela ( p65 ) mrna and inhibit nf - κb activity . more specifically , in a first aspect the present invention provides a dnazyme which specifically cleaves rela ( p65 ) mrna , the dnazyme comprising ( i ) a catalytic domain which cleaves mrna at a purine : pyrimidine cleavage site ; ( ii ) a first binding domain contiguous with the 5 ′ end of the catalytic domain ; and ( iii ) a second binding domain contiguous with the 3 ′ end of the catalytic domain , wherein the binding domains are sufficiently complementary to the two regions immediately flanking a purine : pyrimidine cleavage site within the region of rela ( p65 ) mrna corresponding to nucleotides 1 to 1767 as shown in seq id no : 1 , such that the dnazyme cleaves the rela ( p65 ) mrna . in a preferred embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention , the binding domains are entirely complementary to the regions immediately flanking the cleavage site . it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art , however , that strict complementarity may not be required for the dnazyme to bind to and cleave the rela ( p65 ) mrna . as used herein , “ dnazyme ” means a dna molecule that specifically recognises and cleaves a distinct target nucleic acid sequence , which may be either dna or rna . the catalytic domain of a dnazyme of the present invention may be any suitable catalytic domain . examples of suitable catalytic domains are described in santoro and joyce ( 1997 ) and u . s . pat . no . 5 , 807 , 718 . in a preferred embodiment , the catalytic domain has the nucleotide sequence ggctagctacaacga ( seq id no : 2 ). within the parameters of the present invention , the binding domain lengths ( also referred to herein as “ arm lengths ”) can be of any permutation , and can be the same or different . in a preferred embodiment , the binding domain lengths are at least 6 nucleotides in length , and preferably both binding domains have a combined total length of at least 14 nucleotides . various permutations such as 7 + 7 , 8 + 8 and 9 + 9 are envisioned . it is well established that the greater the binding domain length , the more tightly it will bind to its complementary mrna sequence . accordingly , in a further preferred embodiment , each domain is nine or more nucleotides in length . in a preferred embodiment , the cleavage site corresponds to a site selected from the group consisting of : in a particularly preferred embodiment , the cleavage site corresponds to the gt site at nucleotides 91 - 92 . in a further embodiment , the dnazyme has a sequence selected from the group consisting of : ( seq id no : 3 ) 5 ′ gttcgtccaggctagctacaacgaggccggggt 3 ′; ( seq id no : 4 ) 5 ′ gagggggaaggctagctacaacgaagttcgtcc 3 ′; ( seq id no : 5 ) 5 ′ tgatctccaggctagctacaacgaataggggcc 3 ′; ( seq id no : 6 ) 5 ′ gctgctcaaggctagctacaacgagatctccac 3 ′; ( seq id no : 7 ) 5 ′ cgcctgggaggctagctacaacgagctgcccgc 3 ′; ( seq id no : 8 ) 5 ′ ttggtggtaggctagctacaacgactgtgctcc 3 ′; ( seq id no : 9 ) 5 ′ tgatcttgaggctagctacaacgaggtggggtg 3 ′; ( seq id no : 10 ) 5 ′ cctttcctaggctagctacaacgaaagctcgtg 3 ′; ( seq id no : 11 ) 5 ′ ttcttcacaggctagctacaacgaactggattc 3 ′; ( seq id no : 12 ) 5 ′ tggtctggaggctagctacaacgagcgctgact 3 ′; ( seq id no : 13 ) 5 ′ tagtccccaggctagctacaacgagctgctctt 3 ′; ( seq id no : 14 ) 5 ′ ggtcccgcaggctagctacaacgatgtcacctg 3 ′; ( seq id no : 15 ) 5 ′ cctgcctgaggctagctacaacgagggtcccgc 3 ′; ( seq id no : 16 ) 5 ′ accttgtcaggctagctacaacgaacagtagga 3 ′; ( seq id no : 17 ) 5 ′ ctttctgcaggctagctacaacgacttgtcaca 3 ′; ( seq id no : 18 ) 5 ′ acacctcaaggctagctacaacgagtcctcttt 3 ′; ( seq id no : 19 ) 5 ′ cggtgcacaggctagctacaacgacagcttgcg 3 ′; ( seq id no : 20 ) 5 ′ tccggaacaggctagctacaacgaaatggccac 3 ′; ( seq id no : 21 ) 5 ′ tcgtctgtaggctagctacaacgactggcaggt 3 ′; ( seq id no : 22 ) 5 ′ atccggtgaggctagctacaacgagatcgtctg 3 ′; ( seq id no : 23 ) 5 ′ gcacagcaaggctaoctacaacgagcgtcgagg 3 ′; ( seq id no : 24 ) 5 ′ gggaaggcaggctagctacaacgaagcaatgcg 3 ′; ( seq id no : 25 ) 5 ′ gcttggggaggctagctacaacgaagaagctga 3 ′; ( seq id no : 26 ) 5 ′ gtaaagggaggctagctacaacgaagggctggg 3 ′; ( seq id no : 27 ) 5 ′ gaaacaccaggctagctacaacgaggtgggaaa 3 ′; ( seq id no : 28 ) 5 ′ ggggcaggaggctagctacaacgattggggagg 3 ′; ( seq id no : 29 ) 5 ′ cagagctgaggctagctacaacgaaccatggct 3 ′; ( seq id no : 30 ) 5 ′ ggactgggaggctagctacaacgaaggggctgg 3 ′; ( seq id no : 31 ) 5 ′ gggctagcaggctagctacaacgatgggacagg 3 ′; ( seq id no : 32 ) 5 ′ ggcctctgaggctagctacaacgaagcgttcct 3 ′; ( seq id no : 33 ) 5 ′ tcttcatcaggctagctacaacgacaaactgca 3 ′; ( seq id no : 34 ) 5 ′ agttgtcgaggctagctacaacgaggatgccag 3 ′; ( seq id no : 35 ) 5 ′ ggggggccaggctagctacaacgaaggtatgcc 3 ′; ( seq id no : 36 ) 5 ′ ccatcagcaggctagctacaacgagggctcagt 3 ′; and ( seq id no : 37 ) 5 ′ agaagtccaggctagctacaacgagtccgcaat 3 ′. in a particularly preferred embodiment , the dnazyme has the sequence 5 ′ gagggggaaggctagctacaacgaagttcgtcc 3 ′ ( seq id no : 4 ). in applying dnazyme - based treatments , it is preferable that the dnazymes be as stable as possible against degradation in the intra - cellular milieu . one means of accomplishing this is by incorporating a 3 ′- 3 ′ inversion at one or more termini of the dnazyme . more specifically , a 3 ′- 3 ′ inversion ( also referred to herein simply as an “ inversion ”) means the covalent phosphate bonding between the 3 ′ carbons of the terminal nucleotide and its adjacent nucleotide . this type of bonding is opposed to the normal phosphate bonding between the 3 ′ and 5 ′ carbons of adjacent nucleotides , hence the term “ inversion ”. accordingly , in a preferred embodiment , the 3 ′- end nucleotide residue is inverted in the binding domain contiguous with the 3 ′ end of the catalytic domain . in addition to inversions , the instant dnazymes may contain modified nucleotides or nucleotide linkages . modified nucleotides include , for example , n3 ′- p5 ′ phosphoramidate linkages , 2 ′- o - methyl substitutions and peptide - nucleic acid linkages . these are well known in the art . in a second aspect the present invention provides a pharmaceutical composition comprising a dnazyme according to the first aspect and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier . in the context of the present invention , administering the pharmaceutical compositions of the second aspect can be effected or performed using any of the various methods and delivery systems known to those skilled in the art . the administering can be performed , for example , intravenously , orally , via implant , transmucosally , transdermally , topically , intramuscularly , intra - articularly , subcutaneously or extracorporeally . in addition , the instant pharmaceutical compositions ideally contain one or more routinely used pharmaceutically acceptable carriers . such carriers are well known to those skilled in the art . the following delivery systems , which employ a number of routinely used carriers , are only representative of the many embodiments envisioned for administering the instant composition . transdermal delivery systems include patches , gels , tapes and creams , and can contain excipients such as solubilizers , permeation enhancers ( e . g ., fatty acids , fatty acid esters , fatty alcohols and amino acids ), hydrophilic polymers ( e . g ., polycarbophil and polyvinylpyrolidone ), and adhesives and tackifiers ( e . g ., polyisobutylenes , silicone - based adhesives , acrylates and polybutene ). transmucosal delivery systems include patches , tablets , suppositories , pessaries , gels and creams , and can contain excipients such as solubilizers and enhancers ( e . g ., propylene glycol , bile salts and amino acids ), and other vehicles ( e . g ., polyethylene glycol , fatty - acid esters and derivatives , and hydrophilic polymers such as hydroxypropylmethylcellulose and hyaluronic acid ). injectable drug delivery systems include solutions , suspensions , gels , microspheres and polymeric injectables , and can comprise excipients such as solubility - altering agents ( e . g ., ethanol , propylene glycol and sucrose ) and polymers ( e . g ., polycaprylactones and plga &# 39 ; s ). implantable systems include rods and discs , and can contain excipients such as plga and polycaprylactone . oral delivery systems include tablets and capsules . these can contain excipients such as binders ( e . g ., hydroxypropylmethylcellulose , polyvinyl pyrilodone , other cellulosic materials and starch ), diluents ( e . g ., lactose and other sugars , starch , dicalcium phosphate and cellulosic materials ), disintegrating agents ( e . g ., starch polymers and cellulosic materials ) and lubricating agents ( e . g ., stearates and talc ). solutions , suspensions and powders for reconstitutable delivery systems include vehicles such as suspending agents ( e . g ., gums , zanthans , cellulosics and sugars ), humectants ( e . g ., sorbitol ), solubilizers ( e . g ., ethanol , water , peg and propylene glycol ), surfactants ( e . g ., sodium lauryl sulfate , spans , tweens , and cetyl pyridine ), preservatives and antioxidants ( e . g ., parabens , vitamins e and c , and ascorbic acid ), anti - caking agents , coating agents , and chelating agents ( e . g ., edta ). topical delivery systems include , for example , gels and solutions , and can contain excipients such as solubilizers , permeation enhancers ( e . g ., fatty acids , fatty acid esters , fatty alcohols and amino acids ), and hydrophilic polymers ( e . g ., polycarbophil and polyvinylpyrolidone ). in the preferred embodiment , the pharmaceutically acceptable carrier is a liposome or a biodegradable polymer . examples of liposomes which can be used in this invention include the following : ( 1 ) cellfectin , 1 : 1 . 5 ( m / m ) liposome formulation of the cationic lipid n , ni , nii , niii - tetramethyl - n , ni , nii , niii - tetrapalmitylspermine and dioleoyl phosphatidyl - ethanolamine ( dope )( gibco brl ); ( 2 ) cytofectin gsv , 2 : 1 ( m / m ) liposome formulation of a cationic lipid and dope ( glen research ); ( 3 ) dotap ( n -[ 1 -( 2 , 3 - dioleoyloxy )- n , n , n - trimethyl - ammoniummethylsulfate ) ( boehringer manheim ); and ( 4 ) lipofectamine , 3 : 1 ( m / m ) liposome formulation of the polycationic lipid dospa and the neutral lipid dope ( gibco brl ). delivery of the nucleic acid agents described may also be achieved via one or more of the following vehicles : ( e ) a cholesterol - nucleic acid conjugate ( where cholesterol is preferably conjugated to the 5 ′ terminus of the oligonucleotide ). in order to treat arthritis , for example , the dnazymes of the present invention are preferably administered by direct injection in to inflamed joints , either as naked dna in solution or in liposome complexes . asthma is preferably treated by administering dnazyme of the present invention by aerosol . inflammatory vascular and bowel diseases are preferably treated by intraluminal administration . in a third aspect , the present invention provides a method of inhibiting nf - κb activity in a cell which method comprises introducing into the cell a dnazyme of the first aspect . in a fourth aspect , the present invention provides a method of inhibiting nf - κb activity in a subject which method comprises administering to the subject a pharmaceutical composition of the second aspect . in a fifth aspect the present invention provides a method of treating an inflammatory disease in a subject which method comprises administering to the subject a therapeutically effective dose of a pharmaceutical composition of the second aspect . in a preferred embodiment of the fifth aspect , the inflammatory disease is selected from the group consisting of inflammatory arthritis , asthma , inflammatory bowel disease , septic shock and vasculitis . preferably , the inflammatory arthritis is selected from the group consisting of rheumatoid arthritis , osteoarthritis and seronegative arthritis . in a sixth aspect the present invention provides a method of treating atherosclerosis in a subject which method comprises administering to the subject a therapeutically effective dose of a pharmaceutical composition of the second aspect . in a seventh aspect the present invention provides a method of treating cancer or leukaemia in a subject which comprises administering to the subject a therapeutically effective dose of a pharmaceutical composition of the second aspect . determining therapeutically effective doses of the instant pharmaceutical composition can be done based on animal data using routine computational methods . in one embodiment , the effective dose contains between about 0 . 1 mg and about 1 g of the instant dnazyme . in another embodiment , the effective dose contains between about 1 mg and about 100 mg of the instant dnazyme . in a further embodiment , the effective dose contains between about 10 mg and about 50 mg of the instant dnazyme . in yet a further embodiment , the effective dose contains about 25 mg of the instant dnazyme . a single therapeutically effective dose can be administered over time as a plurality of lesser doses . in one embodiment of the fourth to seventh aspects , the method is performed in vivo . in another embodiment , the method is performed ex vivo . throughout this specification , the word “ comprise ”, or variations such as “ comprises ” or “ comprising ”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element , integer or step , or group of elements , integers or steps , but not the exclusion of any other element , integer or step , or group of elements , integers or steps . this invention will be better understood by reference to the experimental details that follow , but those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that these are only illustrative of preferred aspects of the invention . additionally , throughout this application , various publications are cited . the disclosure of these publications is hereby incorporated by reference into this application to describe more fully the state of the art to which this invention pertains . two dna constructs , designated nd1 and nd2 , were designed based on the 10 - 23 catalytic motif ( santoro and joyce , 1997 ) flanked by two substrate - recognition domains of 9 deoxynucleotides each . an inverted thymidine was placed at the 3 - prime terminal end of the oligodeoxynucleotides . this exposes an apparent 5 - prime end in order to make the constructs resistant to 3 - prime exonuclease activity . construct nd1 is designed to cleave rela ( p65 ) messenger rna at the aug translation start site , between a80 and u81 . construct nd2 is designed to cleave rela ( p65 ) messenger rna at the next available au or gu site in the 3 ′ direction , that is , cleavage between g91 and u92 . their respective controls , nd1c and nd2c , contain randomised hybridisation arms . the control oligonucleotides possess the consensus 10 - 23 catalytic motif except for the alteration of a single base at the 5 ′ end of the catalytic motif . in nd1c there is an a to c change , which is not consistent with the general purpose catalytic motif . in nd2c there is an a to g change , which is consistent with catalytic activity ( santoro and joyce , 1997 ). the constructs are shown below , with hybridization arms underlined , inverted thymidines in parentheses ( t ) and the consensus 10 - 23 catalytic motif in bold . nd1 5 ′ gttcgtcc a ggctagctacaacga ggccggggt ( t ) 3 ′ ( seq id no : 3 ) nd1c 5 ′ ggtgacgc c ggctagctacaacga ctgctggtg ( t ) 3 ( seq id no : 38 ) re1a ( p65 ) mrna , target site for nd1 , a80 / a81 61 5 ′ cgcccccggg accccggcc a uggacgaac u guucccccuc aucuucccgg - 3 ′ 110 ( seq id no : 39 ) nd2 5 ′ gaggggga a ggctagctacaacga agttcgtcc ( t ) 3 ′ ( seq id no : 4 ) nd2c 5 ′ gtagcatg gggctagctacaacga tagggcagc ( t ) 3 ′ ( seq id no : 40 ) re1a ( p65 ) mrna , target site for nd2 , g91 / u92 61 5 ′ cgcccccggg accccggcca u ggacgaacu g uucccccuc aucuucccgg - 3 ′ 110 ( seq id no : 39 ) in vitro cleavage of a synthetic rna target by dnazymes nd1 and nd2 oligonucleotides nd1 , nd1c , nd2 and nd2c were incubated with rela ( p65 ) rna ( 61 - 110 ) at 37 ° c . in 10 mm mg 2 + for the indicated times . the rna was 32 p end - labelled prior to incubation with the dnazymes . cleavage to a single product of the expected molecular weights was observed for nd1 and nd2 ( data not shown ). there is no cleavage with the control oligonucleotides nd1c and nd2c . nd2 cleaves more efficiently than nd1 . effects of dnazymes nd2 on nf - κb and ap - 1 dependent luciferase reporter gene in the presence of a liposome , cellfectin ( life technologies ) hela cells were stably transfected with plasmids containing a luciferase gene ( promega ) transcribed from artificial promoters dependent on six nf - κb binding sites and three ap - 1 sites . dnazymes ( dz ) were complexed with cellfectin at a ratio of dnazyme 1 μm per cellfectin 2 . 5 ug / ml . after administration of dz to hela cells , luciferase was induced with interleukin - 1β 10 ng / ml . fig1 shows that nd2 causes a concentration dependent inhibition of nf - κb dependent gene expression . inhibition by nd2 is significantly greater than with the controls nd2c and vehicle alone , at all concentrations . most importantly , there is no inhibition of ap - 1 dependent gene expression by either nd2 or nd2c , indicating specificity of nd2 for the transcription factor nf - κb when compared to another inducible transcription factor . effect of dnazyme ( dz ) nd2 compared to its control nd2c on nf - κb dependent transcription hela cells stably transfected with the nf - κb dependent luciferase reporter gene were treated with nd2 / cellfectin , nd2c / cellfectin and cellfectin alone , and induced with interleukin - 1β ( il - 1β , 10 ng / ml ). the presence of nd2 is necessary for specific inhibition of nf - κb gene expression . in multiple experiments there was approximately 40 %- 60 % inhibition of inducible gene expression ( fig2 ). effect on dnazymes ( dz ) on nf - κb dna binding in hela cells in the presence of cellfectin dnazymes nd1 and nd2 , and the control oligonucleotides nd1c and nd2c , were complexed with the liposome reagent cellfectin and used to treat hela cells . nf - κb dna binding was induced with interleukin - 1β ( il - 1β , 10 ng / ml ), nuclear extracts prepared from the cells and the extracts analysed by electrophoretic mobility shift analysis ( emsa ) using nf - κb and ap - 1 as the probes ( data not shown ). the indicated bands ( p50 / p65 , p50 / p50 and ap - 1 ) have been characterised by supershift with antibodies and competition with unlabelled specific probes ( not shown ). the lower band in the nf - κb emsa is non - specific . the only significant effects in these emsas are the induction of the p50 / p65 nf - κb dna binding by il - 1β and its inhibition back towards the uninduced state with nd2 . previous results have shown that for any given sequence , usually only 10 - 20 % of dnazymes targeting purine - uracil ( ru ) sites are active against the full length substrate . the reasons for this are not well understood , however , it is thought that differences in dnazyme - substrate hybridisation thermodynamics and rna substrate folding ( secondary structure ) produce dramatic variations in the efficiency of dnazyme catalysis . while nearest neighbour analysis of heteroduplex can be predictive of dnazyme binding domain hybridisation thermodynamics , it is almost impossible to predict the activity of individual dnazymes against long folded rna substrates . the most reliable way to determine the rna cleavage activity of different dnazyme sites along the target rna ( such as rela ) is to test them all empirically . this very difficult , laborious and time consuming task often restricts the scope of this type of analysis . accordingly a multiplex cleavage assay has been developed which allows high throughput cleavage analysis of all candidate dnazymes across a range of concentrations in a single experiment ( cairns et al ., 1999 ). the human rela mrna sequence contains 126 ru dinucleotide sites which are potentially cleavable by the 10 - 23 dnazyme . as only a portion of these sites were likely to be cleaved efficiently by dnazymes under native conditions , a multiplex cleavage assay was emplyed to identify efficient cleavage sites . from the 126 possible sites about 30 were excluded from the cleavage assay as their sequences failed through computational analysis to reach minimum thermodynamic standards . these exclusions were made on the basis of two types of analysis ; ( 1 ) nearest neighbour prediction of hybridisation free energy ( sugimoto et al ., 1995 ), such that all binding domain - substrate heteroduplex had a predicted value of δgo & lt ;- 10 kcal . mol - 1 , ( 2 ) dnazyme oligonucleotide secondary structure ( caused by internal or self complementarity ) such that no oligonucleotides were used if they produced stable stem - loops or “ hairpin ” folds at a predicted melting temperature ( tm )= 70 ° c . another 8 dnazyme sites were excluded as they were not contained within the transcript used in the assay . the remaining 88 dnazymes were synthesised and divided into six groups arranged according location on the rela transcript . these were then incubated with radiolabelled transcript at three different concentrations . the products of this multiplex cleavage reaction were then analysed by primer extension reactions specific for each segment to reveal the active dnazyme molecules . a phosphorimager was then used to determine the identity and intensity of respective dnazyme cleavage bands . from these analyses the most active dnazymes were chosen ( table 1 ). ( 3 ) nd2 specifically inhibits nf - κb dependent transcription in a concentration dependent manner . nd2 does not inhibit an unrelated inducible transcription factor , namely ap - 1 and the control oligonucleotide nd2c does not inhibit nf - κb dependent transcription . ( 4 ) nd2 specifically inhibits inducible binding of the nf - κb protein dimer p50 / p65 in its dna response element . ( 5 ) a liposome reagent enhances inhibition of nf - κb dependent transcription in cell culture . it is recognised that the type of liposome will vary with cell type . it will be appreciated , however , that treatment of animal or human arthritic joints with dnazymes in the absence of a liposomal reagent is possible . it will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and / or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described . the present embodiments are , therefore , to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive . auphan , n ., didonato , j . a ., rosette , c ., helmberg , a ., karin , m . ( 1995 ) science ; 270 : 286 - 290 . breaker , r . r . and joyce , g . f . ( 1995 ) chem . biol . 2 , 655 - 660 . brostjan , c ., anrather , j . csizmadia , v ., stroka , d ., soares , m ., bach , f . h ., et al . 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