RNA-targeted therapeutics: prospects and promise

Structured regions of viral, bacterial and human RNA are attractive targets for drug discovery. interest is fuelled by the revelation, from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and X-ray crystallography, that RNA has a structural complexity similar to proteins, and also by recent development of novel RNA-focused screening methods. However, few examples of RNA-targeted ligands have been reported to date. Analysis of these compounds, and their target specificity, suggests that considerable promise exists for the future development of new classes of therapeutic agents.