Patent 7256284 was granted and assigned to Genta on August, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Inhibitory oligonucleotides are disclosed which are targeted to three specific target regions and subsequences of the target regions found on nucleic acids encoding Bcl-2. These inhibitory oligonucleotides are generally of from about 8 to about 50 nucleotides in length. Specific preferred oligonucleotides are disclosed. The oligonucleotides of the invention may be incorporated into compositions such as pharmaceutical compositions, and may be used in methods for inhibiting the expression of Bcl-2 in a cell or tissue, methods for treating conditions susceptible to modulation of Bcl-2 expression in an organism, and methods for detecting nucleic acid encoding BCL-2.