The catalytic role for Mg 2+ in the hammerhead ribozyme is assured from the detailed mechanistic studies.
Northern blot analysis was consistent with accurate cleavage of the minigenome transcript by the hepatitis { delta } virus ribozyme.
A second rolling circle event makes a long linear +ve strand which is again cleaved by the ribozyme activity.
Angiozyme is likely to be the first ribozyme drug to be approved.
One of the current challenges is the application of ribozyme therapy for dominant mutations coupled with wild-type gene augmentation to overcome haploinsufficiency.