Discrimination between ribonuclease H- and ribonuclease L-mediated RNA degradation by 2 '-O-methylated 2-5A-antisense oligonucleotides

2',5'-Oligoadenylate (2-5A) antisense chimeric oligonucleotides were synthe sized containing varying 2'-O-methyl-ribonucleotide substitution patterns i n the antisense domain. The ability of these composite oligonucleotides to mediate RNase H- and RNase L-catalyzed RNA degradation showed that these tw o enzymes have different activation requirements. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.