The Role of Z-DNA and Z-RNA in Human Diseases
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Genetics and Genomics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 December 2023) | Viewed by 879
Special Issue Editor
Interests: Z-DNA; Z-RNA; ADAR; Zα; flipons; genetics; immunology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Our understanding of biological roles for Z-DNA and Z-RNA has increased dramatically over the past few years, reflecting the work performed over four decades by many talented scientists in disparate disciplines and in relative isolation. The discovery of high affinity and structure-specific Z-DNA and Z-RNA binding proteins has led to new insights into innate immunity and the role of left-handed nucleic acids in defense against viral infection and in the pathogenesis of immune-mediated diseases. This knowledge has advanced to the clinic with the introduction into clinical trials of small molecules for the immunotherapy of cancers. The role of Z-DNA and Z-RNAs in regulating the readout of genetic information is also advancing. Flipons, sequences of adopting alternative nucleic acid conformations under physiological conditions, play a role in dynamically setting chromatin structure and resetting promoter states. They provide a new therapeutic target for altering disease outcomes and the engineering of novel gene therapies. The Special Issue will focus on both the basic biology and genetics of Z-DNA and Z-RNA dependent outcomes and the role of Z-DNA and Z-RNA in disease and in the development of new therapies. Our hope is that the Special Issue will provide a forum for scientists from many different disciplines, working on a diverse array of experimental systems, exploring a variety of pre-clinical models and developing novel computational methodologies to learn from each other’s work. By building our community, we hope to foster many productive collaborations that will advance our understanding of Z-DNA and Z-RNA even further.
Dr. Alan Herbert
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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