RNA Interference for Viral Infections

RNA interference for viral infections.

The treatment of viral infections has relied on pre-emptive vaccination or use of a limited range of anti-viral drugs. However, the majority of viruses have no available drugs and treatment is merely supportive. RNA interference (RNAi) offers the ability to directly and rapidly treat virus infections via the targeting of viral genes. Indeed, clinical trials have already been undertaken with pro...

rna interference: a promising approach for the treatment of viral hepatitis

Enhancement of RNA Interference Effect in P19 EC Cells by an RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase

Background: RNA interference (RNAi) is a phenomenon uses double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) to specifically inhibit gene expression. The non-specific silencing caused by interferon response to dsRNA in mammalian cells limits the potential of utilizing RNAi to study gene function. Duplexes of 21-nucleotide short interfering dsRNA (siRNA) inhibit gene expression by RNAi. In some organisms, siRNA can als...

p53-dependent antiviral RNA-interference facilitates tumor-selective viral replication

RNA-interference (RNAi) is a potent tool for specific gene silencing. In this study, we developed an adenovirus for conditional replication in p53-dysfunctional tumor cells that uses p53-selective expression of a microRNA-network directed against essential adenoviral genes. Compared to a control virus that expressed a scrambled microRNA-network, antiviral RNAi selectively attenuated viral repli...

Tumor-targeted RNA-interference: functional non-viral nanovectors.

While small interfering RNA (siRNA) and microRNA (miRNA) have attracted extensive attention and showed significant promise for the study, diagnosis and treatment of human cancers, delivering siRNA or miRNA specifically and efficiently into tumor cells in vivo remains a great challenge. Delivery barriers, which arise mainly from the routes of administration associated with complex physiochemical...