The present invention is directed to novel double-stranded short
interfering (siRNA) analogues comprising locked nucleic acid (LNA)
monomers. Such compounds induces sequence-specific post-transcriptional
gene silencing in many organisms by a process known as RNA interference
(RNAi). The compounds disclosed herein has improved properties compared
to non-modified siRNAs and may, accordingly, be useful as therapeutic
agents, e.g., in the treatment of various cancer forms. More
particularly, the present invention is directed to siRNA analogues
comprising a sense strand and an antisense strand, wherein each strand
comprises 12-35 nucleotides and wherein the siRNA analogues comprise at
least one locked nucleic acid (LNA) monomer.