Blockage of AMV reverse transcriptase by antisense oligodeoxynucleotides.

Synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides, either unmodified or linked to an intercalating agent, have been used to prevent cDNA elongation by the AMV reverse transcriptase. Oligonucleotide/RNA hybrids specifically arrest primer extension. The blockage involves the degradation of the RNA part bound to the antisense oligonucleotide by the RNase-H activity associated with the retroviral polymerase.