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- Title
RNA Interference and its therapeutic applications.
- Authors
Rao T, Srinivasa; Prasad Ch, Srinivasa; Shah, Showkat Ahmed; Rather, Mudasir Ali
- Abstract
RNAi is a potent method, requiring only a fewmolecules of dsRNAper cell to silence the expression. Long molecules of double stranded RNA(dsRNA) trigger the process. The dsRNAcomes from virus and transposon activity in natural RNAi process, while it can be injected in the cells in experimental processes. The strand of the dsRNAthat is identical in sequence to a region in targetmRNAmolecule is called the sense strand, and the other strandwhich is complimentary is termed the antisense strand.An enzyme complex called DICER thought to be similar to RNAase III then recognizes dsRNA, and cuts it into roughly 22- nucleotide long fragments. These fragments termed siRNAs for "small interfering RNAs" remain in double stranded duplexes with very short 3' overhangs. However, only one of the two strands, known as the guide strand or antisense strand binds the argonaute protein of RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) and target the complementary mRNA resulting gene silencing. The other anti-guide strand or passenger strand is degraded as a RISC substrate during the process of RISC activation. This form of RNAi is termed as post transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS); other forms are also thought to operate at the genomic or transcriptional level in some organisms. In mammals dsRNAlonger than 30 base pairs induces a nonspecific antiviral response. This so-called interferon response results in a nonspecific arrest in translation and induction of apoptosis. This cascade induces a global non-specific suppression of translation, which in turn triggers apoptosis. Interestingly, dsRNAs less than 30 nt in length do not activate the antiviral response and specifically switched off genes in human cells without initiating the acute phase response. Thus these siRNAs are suitable for gene target validation and therapeutic applications in many species, including humans.
- Subjects
RNA; ENZYMES; TRANSPOSONS; GENE silencing; ANTISENSE RNA; NUCLEOTIDES; THERAPEUTICS
- Publication
Veterinary World, 2011, Vol 4, Issue 5, p225
- ISSN
0972-8988
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5455/vetworld.2011.225-229