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Biotech / Medical : Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Perry who wrote (1892)	4/6/1998 9:20:00 PM
From: Daniel Martineau	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4676

Perry, It is true that some genes of RNA viruses mutate rapidly (Ex. HIV envelope) but others remain highly conserved (i.e. they do not mutate so quickly ; ex.: gag, protease) because they must be conserved to carry out their function. This why protease inhibitors work in HIV (in combination therapy that is true). And then if a mutation is detected (buy Affymetrix), you design and use new oligos (or vector). The antisense oncogene may help the patient but 1) cancer cells are by definition genetically unstable (they mutate rapidly), and 2) cancer is due to an accumulation of different mutations within the individual cells, not to a single mutation on an oncogene (you can't transform a normal cell in vitro with a single oncogene). So crippling a single oncogene with antisense (ras or raf or yes or whatever) will probably only slow down temporarily a given subset of tumor cells before other subsets emerge. (This is no small feat for a terminal patient). Daniel