Determining the Diastereomer Composition of Antisense Oligonucleotide Drug Products

Antisense oligonucleotides (ASO) are a class of drug molecules that are made of short nucleotide sequences (DNA or RNA) which can bind to RNA and alter its function. Some modifications that are made during the synthesis of these drug molecules can introduce different chemical configurations which in turn affect its pharmacokinetics.

This project aims at understanding the diastereomeric composition of antisense oligonucleotide drug products through investigating how different synthesis processes affect the chemical composition of the drug. In collaboration with Jace Jones, PhD, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Robert Brinson, PhD, Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR), and Steven Fletcher, PhD, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, the project involves multiple analytical techniques such as Liquid chromatography, Ion mobility and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) data.

Our approach focuses on incorporating statistical methods in order to test and compare the effect of the different analytical technologies and the synthesis process in the diastereomer composition of the used drugs.