Covering all areas of the medicinal chemistry and therapeutic applications of nucleic acids, this book provides up-to-date coverage of the broad area of nucleic acid chemistry and biology. The book lays out the basic principles of medicinal chemistry of nucleic acids before focusing on the development and application of modified nucleosides and nucleotides in medicinal chemistry. Cutting-edge subjects for drug discovery like antisense, RNAi, and siRNA are also discussed, and help the target audience of chemists, pharmaceutical researchers, and academics understand the use of nucleic acid drugs to treat diseases.