Ribonucleic acid, or RNA, has long been underappreciated for its role in gene expression. Until recent years, RNA has been thought of merely as a messenger, shuttling DNA’s instructions to the genetic machinery that synthesizes proteins.

But new discoveries of RNA functions, modifications and its ability to transcribe sections of the genome that were previously considered “junk DNA” has led to the discovery of a huge number of new druggable targets.

These new insights into RNA’s complex purposes have largely been uncovered through ever-increasingly sensitive and affordable sequencing methods. As a result, RNA-based drugs now stand to greatly extend our ability to treat diseases beyond the scope of what’s possible with small molecules and biologics.

Although several RND-based drug approaches have already been established, some barriers still prevent these strategies from working broadly. In a review paper for Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, Judy Lieberman, MD, PhD, of the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine of Boston Children’s Hospital, lays out where RNA-based drug development currently stands.

Lieberman, who has helped pioneer the RNA-based drug revolution herself, was the first scientist to show in an animal disease model that small, double-stranded RNAs could be used as drugs and leveraged to knock down genes in cells.

Read Lieberman’s review: “Tapping the RNA world for therapeutics.”