Scientists design small molecules that recognize myotonic dystrophy-associated RNAs

In continuation of my update on RNAs

Scientists design small molecules that recognize myotonic dystrophy-associated RNAs

Killing the message: An approach to direct the cleavage of RNA targets with small molecules in living cells is described (see scheme). A bifunctional small molecule (purple) that recognizes a specific three nucleotide repeat sequence and cleaves that sequence in response to light was shown to be effective at degrading the myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) extended repeat RNAs, affecting biological functions.

Ref : http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201206888/abstract