Research progresses of artificial nucleic acid cleavage agents

Artificial nucleic acid cleavage agents have attracted close attention because they play important roles in biochemistry and molecular biology. According to the cleavage mechanism of nucleic acid, they are divided into three types, namely free radical, phosphodiester bond hydrolysis and elimination cleavage agents. In this review, a series of cleavage agents, including the site- and sequence-specific ones, are illustrated, and some suggestions for the future researches in this field are also put forward.