DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention thus contemplates a synthetic or engineered (i.
e.
, non-naturally-occurring) catalytic DNA molecule (or enzymatic DNA molecule) capable of cleaving a substrate nucleic acid (NA) sequence at a defined cleavage site.
The invention also contemplates an enzymatic DNA molecule having an endonuclease activity.
In one preferred variation, the endonuclease activity is specific for a nucleotide sequence defining a cleavage site comprising single-stranded nucleic acid in a substrate nucleic acid sequence.
In another preferred variation, the cleavage site is double-stranded nucleic acid.
Similarly, substrate nucleic acid sequences may be single-stranded, double-stranded, partially single- or double-stranded, looped, or any combination thereof.
In another contemplated embodiment, the substrate nucleic acid sequence includes one or more nucleotide analogues.
In one variation, the substrate nucleic acid sequence is a portion of, or attached to, a larger molecule.
In various embodiments, the larger molecule is selected from the group consisting of RNA, modified RNA, DNA, modified DNA, nucleotide analogs, or composites thereof.
In another example, the larger molecule comprises a composite of a nucleic acid sequence and a non-nucleic acid sequence.
In another embodiment, the invention contemplates that a substrate nucleic acid sequence includes one or more nucleotide analogs.
A further variation contemplates that the single stranded nucleic acid comprises RNA, DNA, modified RNA, modified DNA, one or more nucleotide analogs, or any composite thereof.
In one embodiment of the disclosed invention, the endonuclease activity comprises hydrolytic cleavage of a phosphoester bond at the cleavage site.
In various preferred embodiments, the catalytic DNA molecules of the present invention are single-stranded in whole or in part.
These catalytic DNA molecules may preferably assume a variety of shapes consistent with their catalytic activity.
Thus, in one variation, a catalytic DNA molecule of the present invention includes one or more hairpin loop structures
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Gene Therapy 
