MG-63 human osteosarcoma cells were transfected with short hairpin RNA (shRNA) against livin and survivin using monomethoxypolyethylene glycol‑chitosan (mPEG‑CS) nanoparticles (NPs) as carriers, with the aim of evaluating the effect on cell proliferation and apoptosis. mPEG‑CS NPs sized ~100 nm were prepared by ionic crosslinking. mPEG‑CS‑livin shRNA, mPEG‑CS‑survivin shRNA and mPEG‑CS‑(livin s...

Arginine biosynthesis and nitric oxide (NO) production are important for cancer homeostasis. Degradation of arginine may be used to inhibit liver tumors with low argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS) expression. In this report, we investigated an alternative therapeutic approach by targeting argininosuccinate lyase (ASL). ASL is transcriptionally induced by endoplasmic reticulum stress and is over...

Because of the lack of pharmacological approaches, molecular genetic methods have been required to differentiate between angiotensin type 1(AT1) receptor subtypes AT1a and AT1b. RNA interference is a new tool for the study of gene function, producing specific downregulation of protein expression. In this study, we used the small hairpin RNA (shRNA) cassette method to screen target sites for sel...

BACKGROUND Lung cancer is emerging rapidly as the leading death cause in Chinese cancer patients. The causal factors for Chinese lung cancer development remain largely unclear. Here we employed an shRNA library-based loss-of-function screen in a genome-wide and unbiased manner to interrogate potential tumor suppressor candidates in the immortalized human lung epithelial cell line BEAS-2B. MET...

Despite previous advances, the treatment options for prostate cancer remain limited. For the purposes of gene knockdown, the utility of RNA interference has been demonstrated and is considered to have therapeutic potential. In the present study, a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) was used to assess the effect of special AT-rich sequence binding protein (SATB1) downregulation on the growth and metastat...

The application of RNA interference (RNAi) to study gene function is now commonplace in a variety of biological systems. Producing short hairpin RNA (shRNA) by DNA vectors is one popular strategy for RNAi applications. Here, we describe a one-step PCR method, termed reverse PCR, for constructing shRNA expression vectors. Characteristically, the pair of primers binds to circular plasmid in a bac...

Progress in constructing biological networks will rely on the development of more advanced components that can be predictably modified to yield optimal system performance. We have engineered an RNA-based platform, which we call an shRNA switch, that provides for integrated ligand control of RNA interference (RNAi) by modular coupling of an aptamer, competing strand, and small hairpin (sh)RNA st...