Targeting long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) with oligonucleotides in cancer therapy

The Commentaries on our recent paper in Oncotarget (1),reporting the successful induction of apoptosis by a 23-base oligonucleotide mimicking a key section of lncRNA GAS5, have raised some important points and have further developed the broader application of lncRNA-targeting oligonucleotides in cancer therapy. This area is now attracting considerable attention, reflecting the rapidly growing awareness of the importance of lncRNAs in human cell biology and biomedicine—the numbers of citations of lncRNA papers are currently doubling every year (2), and this is recognised in all three Commentaries (3-5).