GSBS Student Publications
Title
Asymmetric RNA duplexes mediate RNA interference in mammalian cells
Publication Date
2008-11-26
UMMS Affiliation
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; Department of Therapeutic Biology
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences
Abstract
RNA interference (RNAi) has become an indispensable technology for biomedical research and has demonstrated the potential to become a new class of therapeutic. Current RNAi technology in mammalian cells relies on short interfering RNA (siRNA) consisting of symmetrical duplexes of 19-21 base pairs (bp) with 3' overhangs. Here we report that asymmetric RNA duplexes with 3' and 5' antisense overhangs silence mammalian genes effectively. An asymmetric interfering RNA (aiRNA) of 15 bp was incorporated into the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) and mediated sequence-specific cleavage of the target mRNA between base 10 and 11 relative to the 5' end of the antisense strand. The gene silencing mediated by aiRNA was efficacious, durable and correlated with reduced off-target silencing by the sense strand. These results establish aiRNA as a scaffold structure for designing RNA duplexes to induce RNAi in mammalian cells.
DOI of Published Version
10.1038/nbt.1512
Source
Nat Biotechnol. 2008 Dec;26(12):1379-82. Epub 2008 Nov 23. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Nature biotechnology
Related Resources
PubMed ID
19029911
Repository Citation
Sun, Xiangao; Rogoff, Harry A.; and Li, Chiang J., "Asymmetric RNA duplexes mediate RNA interference in mammalian cells" (2008). GSBS Student Publications. 1376.
https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/gsbs_sp/1376