Application of computational technologies to ribozyme biotechnology products

Abstract

Ribozymes are RNA molecules that act enzymatically to cleave other RNA molecules. The cleavage reaction requires the binding of ribozyme to specific sites on the target RNA through (mostly) Watson-Crick base-pairing interactions. Association of ribozyme with target completes a three-dimensional ribozyme/target complex which results in cleavage of the target RNA. We are employing both computational and experimental approaches to identify sites on target RNA molecules that are open to ribozyme attack and to determine which ribozymes are most active against those sites. Two types of computational technologies are available for aiding in the identification of target sites and design of active ribozymes. First, DNA/RNA sequence analysis software is employed to identify sequence motifs necessary for ribozyme cleavage and to look for sequence conservation between different sources of the target organism so that ribozymes with the broadest possible target range can be designed. Second, RNA folding algorithms are employed to predict the secondary structure of both ribozyme and target RNA in an attempt to identify combinations of ribozyme and target site that will successfully associate prior to ribozyme cleavage. The RNA folding algorithms utilize a set of thermodynamic parameters obtained from measurements on short RNA duplexes; while these rules give reasonable predictions of secondary structure for a small set of highly structured RNAs, they remain largely untested for predicting the structure of messenger RNAs. This paper outlines the current status of designing ribozymes that fold correctly and of locating target sites that are sufficiently unfolded to allow ribozyme cleavage.