Western blotting Nave and PSNI rats were terminally anesthetized and perfused with saline solution

g machinery from the specific splice site.164 This approach is based on the fact that trans-acting factors recognize and bind to specific cis elements on the mRNA to execute splicing. Antisense oligonucleotides are synthetic nucleic acids that can bind cis elements on the mRNA through base AMI-1 pairing.145,165 ASOs Modulating Alternative Splicing as a Novel Therapeutic Approach Given that aberrant splicing is one of the characteristic features of cancer it is obvious that the development of therapeutic approaches based on splicing modulation would be the focus of intense research.145 The aim of these approaches is to either alter or inhibit the splicing machinery to convert it to the noncancerous state, or to degrade the cancer-specific splicing isoforms that contribute to tumor development, maintenance, or progression. Several approaches will be discussed and are PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19841886 outlined in e970955-6 Molecular & Cellular Oncology Volume 2 Issue 1 can be designed to either block factor binding to a cis element, preventing splicing from occurring at that specific site and resulting in enhanced inclusion of a specific exon, or to target splicing enhancers or silencers to either block or promote splicing. This approach has been used with some success, mainly in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy166 and spinal muscular atrophy.167,168 Targeting the cis elements by ASOs has major advantages over targeting the splicing factors directly. When protein expression of a specific factor is inhibited all of its biological functions are affected, including splicing, transport, or translation. Introduction of ASOs into the cells only affects the targeted mRNA and other cell functions remain unaffected. However, there are some disadvantages to this approach. One disadvantage is that the ASOs have to be absorbed by the target tissue/ cells at a very high efficiency. This difficulty has been overcome in the treatment of neurodegenerative disease with ASOs.169 Cancer treatment based on splicing modulation has also been attempted. To date, several targets have been studied, such as RON,170 PKM,171 Mdm,172 mcl1,173 FGFR1,174 and BCL-X.175 For a further review on ASO-based treatment please see.145 Summary and Future Scope Splicing is a complex process requiring a combinatorial network of cis-acting elements and trans-acting factors. Elucidating the roles of the trans-acting splicing factors in cancer development and progression is challenging; these factors are involved in almost every layer of cellular function, they are ubiquitously expressed in all tissues with differential roles in different tissues,87,176,177 and they regulate many steps of RNA processing including splicing, mRNA transport, mRNA stability, nonsense-mediated decay, and miRNA biogenesis.60,62-64,178,179 In the past few years, it has become clear that splicing factors are major drivers of cancer initiation and progression. The involvement of splicing factors in multiple steps of RNA processing and the redundancy of activities among some of these factors makes it difficult to decipher the precise constellation of factors necessary for a specific splicing decision and for cancer development. Another hurdle in understanding the role of splicing factors in normal physiological conditions is the lack of good animal model systems. Mice that lack the alternative splicing factors SRSF1, SRSF2, or SRSF3 are non-viable180-182 and therefore there is a need for more sophisticat