The second strand of nucleotides is the complement of the sense strand, but reads completely differently, hence the name antisense.

FORBES: Antisense and Sensibility

Instructions are transcribed from the sense strand onto a third strand, called messenger RNA, which becomes a template for making proteins.

FORBES: Antisense and Sensibility

The experimental drugs latch on to the sense strand of RNA, a messenger form of DNA, thereby blocking the RNA from producing proteins that cause disease.

FORBES: Antisense and Sensibility

And if sense and antisense should meet, the resulting double-stranded molecule no longer works, so the protein the sense strand encodes is not made any more.

ECONOMIST: How to create lots of drugs at once

The terms sense and antisense were coined by Paul Zamecnik to show the complementary, double-strand nature of DNA. One strand consisted of alternating patterns of the four nucleotides that make up DNA adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine and it could be read in order.

FORBES: Antisense and Sensibility