The purpose of this study was to investigate the therapeutic effects of small hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting endothelin-converting enzyme (ECE)-1 in monocrotaline (MCT)-induced pulmonary hypertensive rats. Ninty-four Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups: control (n = 24), MCT (n = 35) and shRNA (n = 35). Four-week survival rate in the shRNA group was significantly increased compare...

BACKGROUND Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a re-emerging alphavirus that causes chikungunya fever and persistent arthralgia in humans. Currently, there is no effective vaccine or antiviral against CHIKV infection. Therefore, this study evaluates whether RNA interference which targets at viral genomic level may be a novel antiviral strategy to inhibit the medically important CHIKV infection. METH...

background: hla-g is a nonclassical hla class i molecule which, when elevated in tumor cells, is one of the main factors involved in tumor evasion of immune responses including nk and t cells. objective: to evaluate the effect of hla-g downregulation on nk cell cytotoxicity in tumor cell lines. methods: the expression level of hla-g was measured by real-time pcr and flowcytometry after transfec...

BACKGROUND It has been reported that blocking small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) conjugation by silencing SUMO gene remarkably decreased tumor growth in vivo. However, few studies have examined the relationship between SUMO gene silencing and gastric cancer (GC). The study aims to explore the effects of SUMO-1 gene silencing on GC cell proliferation and apoptosis. METHODS GC cells were cult...

RNAi by short hairpin RNA (shRNA) is a powerful tool not only for studying gene functions in various organisms, including mammals, but also for the treatment of severe disorders. However, shRNA-expressing vectors can induce type I interferon (IFN) expression by activation of innate immune responses, leading to off-target effects and unexpected side effects. Several strategies have been develope...