Something Old,Something New

In a particularly prescient 1998 review in the journal Blood, the late Alan Gewirtz and his collaborators describe the significant challenges facing antisense therapy development, noting that “while the theory is straightforward, the complexity of the task should now be much more apparent.” ¹ Indeed, in the dozen years since they wrote these words, the theory of nucleic acid therapeutics remains simple, but the “complexity of the task” seems to be even more labyrinthine, reflecting the sheer complexity of the pathobiology we seek to address with our efforts.

Based on this complexity, the same challenges that face our discipline have bedeviled the gene therapy field as well: the design, delivery, and regulation of nucleic acid-based interventions (gene replacement or augmentation in the case of gene therapy, nucleic acid-based compounds as therapeutic moieties in their own right as our focus). Although significant progress has been made in addressing all of these challenges, we are still very much in “the early phase of the learning curve,” as noted by our predecessor John Rossi in his Perspective on the development of RNAi therapeutics in this issue. ² Nevertheless, there is a sense of real excitement in the field, thanks to a growing awareness that these challenges are only highly, not infinitely, complex, and that we now have the solid foundation of knowledge needed to begin overcoming them.

As it has been from its beginning, progress and setbacks in meeting these 3 challenges will continue to be the main focus of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, in primary manuscripts as well as Reviews and Perspectives. In addition, because of the growing number of biotech and pharma companies focusing on nucleic acid therapeutics, we are planning to seek active input from our industry colleagues by forming an Industry Advisory Board early in 2012 to help us capture not only the scientific, but also the regulatory and business challenges we must meet in order to move a therapeutic invention into clinical practice.

Over the next few months we will step back and take a serious look at how Nucleic Acids Therapeutics is structured, what areas we need to build up or improve, and potential new features of interest to our readers. To that end, we welcome your observations, suggestions, and even criticisms. A scientific journal is only as good as its content, and John Rossi, Cy Stein, and their editorial board colleagues have done a tremendous job in building this journal, particularly through its transition from Oligonucleotides to its present title. We owe them a debt of gratitude for their hard work and hope that we can continue to build on their efforts, and we are especially grateful that Cy has agreed to continue to serve as Co-Editor-in-Chief.

Finally, we are delighted that Nucleic Acid Therapeutics will continue to be the official journal of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society, and we hope to further strengthen the bonds between the society and the journal, expanding the reach and awareness of both.

We look forward to working with you and hope that you will continue to support Nucleic Acid Therapeutics through submitting and reviewing manuscripts and offering advice.