Enzymatically produced pools of canonical and Dicer-substrate siRNA molecules display comparable gene silencing and antiviral activities against herpes simplex virus.

ABSTRACT: RNA interference (RNAi)-based sequence-specific gene silencing is applied to identify gene function and also possesses great potential for inhibiting virus replication both in animals and plants. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules are the inducers of gene silencing in the RNAi pathway but may also display immunostimulatory activities and promote apoptosis. Canonical siRNAs are 21 nucleotides (nt) in length and are loaded to the RNA Induced Silencing Complex when introduced into the cells, while longer siRNA molecules are first processed by endogenous Dicer and thus termed Dicer-substrate siRNA (DsiRNA). We have applied RNA polymerases from bacteriophages T7 and phi6 to make high-quality double-stranded RNA molecules that are specific for the UL29 gene of herpes simplex virus (HSV). Th

SUBMITTER: Romanovskaya A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3511422 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature