Advances in research on anti-tumor and antiviral effects of ribozymes

Abstract

Most of the enzymes are proteins and there are a few macromolecules with biocatalytic activity such as RNA and
DNA. Ribozyme (Rz) is a class of biocatalytic RNA. The substrate is a ribozyme of the RNA molecule that catalyzes
the cleavage and splicing of the substrate RNA. Its role is characterized by low cutting efficiency and is easily
destroyed by RNase. The catalytic type includes RNA transnucleotide reaction, RNA restriction endonuclease reaction
(hydrolysis reaction) and polymerase activity reaction (link reaction). It may have amino acid esterase, amino acid
tRNA synthetase and peptide transfer. Activity of the enzyme indicates that the ribozyme plays an important role in the
process of translation and ribosome function. The ribozymes currently found include class I introns, class II introns,
RNaseP, hammerhead, hairpin and axular ribozyme (hepatitis D virus ribozyme). Recent studies have confirmed
that ribozymes are commonly found in nature and their secondary structures are composed of amino acid arms,
dihydropyrimidine rings, anti-cryptocycles, additional rings and TφC rings. Ribozyme is a catalyst that can be used
repeatedly. As compared with antisense RNA, ribozyme drugs use less dose, toxicity is small and the role of ribozyme
on the virus targeting sequence is specific hence rendering the virus more difficult to produce tolerance. The use of
ribozyme is to splice the highly specific treatment of the corresponding disease has long-term prospects. At present,
ribozyme technology is a promising application of gene therapy although in 20 years has been a huge development
but there are many problems are not resolved such as in vitro screening of high activity of ribozymes, (Hairpin
ribozyme), ax ribozyme (The ax of the ribozyme) research. The establishment of efficient expression system in vivo,
enhanced ribozyme in the cell cutting efficiency and to seek more effective carrier. The resolution of these problems,
the ribozyme in the clinical application of the time to further shorten. At present, although the anti-tumor and antiviral
activity of ribozyme is still in the experimental stage, it has revealed the dawn of hope. This article provides a brief
overview of the use of ribozymes in antitumor and antiviral therapy in recent years.