About this Research Topic
Renal structure and function is a complex biological system that regulates extracellular fluid volume, ion concentrations, osmolarity, pH; eliminates wastes and toxins; and produces hormones including erythropoietin and renin. Healthy kidneys are essential to maintaining the host’s overall health and sustaining homeostatic balance. Acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, renal cancers and polycystic kidney disease severely impact quality of life and create an enormous burden on the global health system. Implementing new therapies to improve renal health and manage untoward events is the goal of renal pharmacology.
Novel therapies employing small interfering RNA and antisense oligonucleotide drugs are poised at the vanguard of new treatment strategies and these approaches need to be investigated, developed and translated into clinical use. Manuscripts addressing one or more of the following themes are invited:
1. Advances in synthesis of innovative modified nucleic acid biochemistry designed to stabilize se-quences to degradation and/or increase potency and efficacy.
2. Development of therapeutic RNA- and antisense DNA-appended chemical moieties that enable efficient tissue- and cell-specific targeting.
3. Methods that integrate mesoscale and nanoscale transportation vehicles for drug delivery in vi-vo.
4. Studies that demonstrate proof-of-concept and/or proof-of-mechanism of profound trans-formative potential for pharmacological control of gene and protein expression at the tissue and cellular level
5. Investigations that interrogate and assess large scale genomic data describing changes that ac-company RNA interference and antisense drug studies
6. Toxicology and immune response to RNA interference and antisense drug studies – off-target and on-target
This Research Topic will serve to explore a pharmacological toolbox of RNA interference and antisense pharmacological agents, which yield gene based therapies that can be used for a wide range of kidney diseases and injuries.
Novel therapies employing small interfering RNA and antisense oligonucleotide drugs are poised at the vanguard of new treatment strategies and these approaches need to be investigated, developed and translated into clinical use. Manuscripts addressing one or more of the following themes are invited:
1. Advances in synthesis of innovative modified nucleic acid biochemistry designed to stabilize se-quences to degradation and/or increase potency and efficacy.
2. Development of therapeutic RNA- and antisense DNA-appended chemical moieties that enable efficient tissue- and cell-specific targeting.
3. Methods that integrate mesoscale and nanoscale transportation vehicles for drug delivery in vi-vo.
4. Studies that demonstrate proof-of-concept and/or proof-of-mechanism of profound trans-formative potential for pharmacological control of gene and protein expression at the tissue and cellular level
5. Investigations that interrogate and assess large scale genomic data describing changes that ac-company RNA interference and antisense drug studies
6. Toxicology and immune response to RNA interference and antisense drug studies – off-target and on-target
This Research Topic will serve to explore a pharmacological toolbox of RNA interference and antisense pharmacological agents, which yield gene based therapies that can be used for a wide range of kidney diseases and injuries.
Keywords: RNA, antisense DNA, drug delivery, pharmacological control, nucleic acid biochemistry
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
