ABSTRACT
Oligonucleotide drugs have experienced accelerated development in the past 10 years, and some of them have been used in clinical treatment. Because of its convenient design, flexible sequence, and high specificity, it is expected to solve the “undruggable” challenge of many targets which are difficult in drug development. Moreover, its clinical transformation period and cost are relatively low, which makes oligonucleotide drug become the frontier of emerging biotechnology drug discovery. Brain diseases include a series of incurable diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases, glioma, and motor neuron diseases. Many of them are age-related and regarded as aging-associated brain diseases. Due to the complex etiology, many targets are difficult to be drugged. At the same time, the existence of the barrier system “blood-brain barrier” in the brain makes most drugs unable to achieve effective accumulation at brain lesions, and many small molecule drugs have failed in clinical transformation. The specificity and sequence flexibility of oligonucleotide acid drugs provide new possibilities for drug development, but they also face the challenge of brain delivery. Although a variety of oligonucleotide drugs have been used in the medical market, brain-targeted oligonucleotide drugs are still extremely rare. This article reviewed recent advances and discussed key topics and clinical transformation challenges in this field, such as clinical approval cases, bottlenecks of brain-targeted delivery and current strategies, as well as potential targets for aging-related brain diseases.