The Emergence of Oligonucleotide Building Blocks in the Multispecific Proximity-Inducing Drug Toolbox of Destruction

Oligonucleotides are a rapidly emerging class of therapeutics. Their most well-known examples are informational drugs that modify gene expression by binding mRNA. Despite inducing proximity between biological machinery and mRNA when applied to modulating gene expression, oligonucleotides are not typically labeled as "proximity-inducing" in literature. Yet, they have recently been explored as building blocks for multispecific proximity-inducing drugs (MPIDs). MPIDs are unique because they can direct endogenous biological machinery to destroy targeted molecules and cells, in contrast to traditional drugs that inhibit only their functions. The unique mechanism of action of MPIDs has enabled the targeting of previously "undruggable" molecular entities that cannot be effectively inhibited. However, the development of MPIDs must ensure that these molecules will selectively direct a potent, destruction-based mechanism of action toward intended targets over healthy tissues to avoid causing life-threatening toxicities. Oligonucleotides have emerged as promising building blocks for the design of MPIDs because they are sequence-controlled molecules that can be rationally designed to program multispecific binding interactions. In this Review, we examine the emergence of oligonucleotide-containing MPIDs in the proximity induction space, which has been dominated by antibody and small molecule MPID modalities. Moreover, examples of oligonucleotides developed as MPID candidates in immunotherapy and protein degradation are discussed to demonstrate the utility of oligonucleotides in expanding the scope and selectivity of the MPID toolbox. Finally, we discuss the utility of programming "AND" gates into oligonucleotide scaffolds to encode conditional responses that have the potential to be incorporated into MPIDs, which can further enhance their selectivity, thus increasing the scope of this drug category.