Exiqon launches advanced on-line tool for design of LNA™ gapmers for inhibition of mRNA and lncRNA


Exiqon A/S (NASDAQ OMX: EXQ), a leading supplier of high-value gene expression analysis products, today announced an extension to the LNA™ longRNA GapmeR product line with the launch of a novel on-line bioinformatics tool for the design of custom LNA™-gapmer antisense oligonucleotides for specific and efficient inhibition of mRNA and lncRNA.

The new on-line LNA™ gapmer design tool allows scientists to effortlessly design optimal LNA™ gapmers through a simple and intuitive interface.

The tool provides a ranked list of LNA™ gapmer designs that takes into account more than 30 design criteria in the evaluation of more than 100,000 different in silico designs which allows the scientist to quickly select preferred designs and product format. The underlying software to the new on-line LNA™ gapmer design tool includes important performance parameters such as LNA spiking pattern, target accessibility, secondary structures and potential off-targets based on searches against several gene databases including ENSEMBL. 

The design tool is wet-lab validated with hundreds of LNA™ gapmer antisense oligonucleotides having been tested in cell cultures and in animal models.

New to Exiqon’s LNA™ longRNA GapmeR product offering is a number of carefully selected and wet-lab validated negative control assays.

“The new on-line design tool is perfectly suited for scientists who have identified interesting targets for instance by next generation sequence analysis and would like to understand the functionality of such targets“ says Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Henrik M. Pfundheller and continues “Since the launch of the product line earlier this year we have seen a very rapid adaptation by our customers which I believe is due to the substantial body of scientific literature supporting the superior performance of LNA™ gapmers”. 

LNA™ longRNA GapmeRs are high affinity antisense oligonucleotides used for functional analysis that allow researchers to study the gene function and downstream biological implications of silencing a specific mRNA or long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in cell-cultures or animal models. The unique LNA™-enhanced design of the LNA™ longRNA GapmeR offers superior performance compared to alternative RNA silencing methods including siRNA. Even targets located in the nucleus are effectively silenced by the LNA™ longRNA GapmeRs.   The incorporation of LNA™ increases bio-stability which secures the biological activity over an extended period of time and provides excellent pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics properties including high stability and low toxicity making them ideal for in vivo testing.

Exiqon offers a range of compatible LNA™ enhanced products for mRNA and lncRNA research including products for qPCR and in situ hybridization analysis. 

Information about the LNA™ longRNA GapmeRs is available here: http://www.exiqon.com/gapmers

Additional information:
Lars Kongsbak, President and CEO, tel. +45 4566 0888 (cell: +45 4090 2101)
Henrik M. Pfundheller, VP Sales & Marketing, tel. +45 4565 0420 (cell: +45 4090 2106)


Attachments

PressRelease_gapmer_030913.pdf