Aspects of the application relate to methods and compositions for delivering therapeutic nucleic acids to neural cells or tissue in a subject. Additional aspects of the application relate to therapeutic nucleic acids, for example therapeutic ribozymes, that are useful for inhibiting viral reactivation in a subject.

Novel processes and compositions are described which use viral capsid proteins resistant to hydrolases to prepare virus-like particles to enclose and subsequently isolate and purify target cargo molecules of interest including nucleic acids such as siRNAs and shRNAs, miRNAs, messenger RNAs, small peptides and bioactive molecules.

Herein is reported a composition comprising a pair of a first nucleic acid and a second nucleic acid, wherein the first nucleic acid comprises in the order a first part of a stem nucleic acid sequence, a cleavage site, a first stem loop nucleic acid sequences which 5- and 3-parts form a duplex, a first part of a catalytic core sequence, a second stem loop nucleic acid sequences which 5- and 3-parts form a duplex, a second part of the catalytic core sequence, and a second part of the stem nucleic acid sequence, which is complementary to the first part of the stem nucleic acid sequence and, thus, form a duplex therewith, wherein the second nucleic acid is complementary to at least a part of the first or the second part of the stem nucleic acid sequence, wherein binding of the second nucleic acid to the first nucleic acid results in a conformational change of the first nucleic acid, which is at least one of the dissociation of the first part of the first stem sequence from the second part of the stem sequence and the hybridization of one of the parts with the second nucleic acid, or the dissociation of loop I and loop II resulting in an inactivation of the catalytic activity, or the association of loop I and loop II resulting in an activation of the catalytic activity.

In certain aspects, the present disclosure provides nucleic acid molecules containing ribozyme catalytic cores for production of circularized RNA containing a nucleic acid sequence of interest, as well as methods of preparation and methods of use.

The invention pertains to an inducible CRISPR system for controlling expression of a CRISPR complex with an inducible fusion promoter. One embodiment of the invention provides HIV LTR-minimal Drosophila hsp70 fusion promoter that can be used for inducible co-expression of gRNA and Cas9 in HIV-infected cells to target cellular cofactors such as Cyclin T1. A single introduction of such embodiment leads to sustained suppression of HIV replication in stringent, chronically infected HeLa-CD4 cell lines as well as in T-cell lines. In another embodiment, the invention further relates to enhancement of HIV suppression by incorporating cis-acting ribozymes immediately upstream of the gRNA in the inducible CRISPR system construct. The inducible fusion promoter is adaptable for other tissue- or cell-type specific expression of the inducible CRISPR system.

The invention pertains to an inducible CRISPR system for controlling expression of a CRISPR complex with an inducible fusion promoter. One embodiment of the invention provides HIV LTR-minimal Drosophila hsp70 fusion promoter that can be used for inducible co-expression of gRNA and Cas9 in HIV-infected cells to target cellular cofactors such as Cyclin T1. A single introduction of such embodiment leads to sustained suppression of HIV replication in stringent, chronically infected HeLa-CD4 cell lines as well as in T-cell lines. In another embodiment, the invention further relates to enhancement of HIV suppression by incorporating cis-acting ribozymes immediately upstream of the gRNA in the inducible CRISPR system construct. The inducible fusion promoter is adaptable for other tissue- or cell-type specific expression of the inducible CRISPR system.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to methods and compositions useful for treating retinitis pigmentosa. In some aspects, the disclosure provides compositions and methods for delivering an interfering RNA to a subject in order to reduce expression of one or both alleles of an endogenous RHO gene (for example a mutant rho allele associated with retinitis pigmentosa) in a subject. In some embodiments, a replacement RHO coding sequence that is resistant to the interfering RNA also is delivered to the subject.

The present invention relates to compositions and methods for activating expression from the paternally-inherited allele of UBE3A in human Angelman's Syndrome neurons using viral vector delivery of short hairpin RNAs, ribozymes, and/or microRNAs.

The invention concerns recombinant DNA's comprising cDNA of genomic RNA of a Salmonidae alphavirus preceded by a spacer sequence, under the control of a suitable promoter. Said recombinant DNAs are useful for obtaining expression vectors, producing recombinant Salmonidae alphavirus, and for obtaining vaccines.

The present invention relates to a method for analyzing the structure of 5 terminus of an RNA molecule in a population of RNA molecules using catalytic nucleic acids, e.g., for determining the presence or absence of a 5 cap structure.