The term anti-sense comes from the fact that messenger RNA is synthesized from one of the two strands of the DNA double helix - that strand is called the template, or sense strand. The complementary strand of DNA is called the anti-sense strand. The two DNA strands - sense and anti sense - are complementary to each other and form a double helix. The two RNA strands produced from these DNA strands are also complementary. When bound into a double helix, the RNA strands cannot function to produce proteins.