Therapeutic silencing of an endogenous gene by systemic administration of modified siRNAs

RNA interference (RNAi) holds considerable promise as a therapeutic approach to silence disease-causing genes, particularly those that encode so-called 'non-druggable' targets that are not amenable to conventional therapeutics such as small molecules, proteins, or monoclonal antibodies. The main obstacle to achieving in vivo gene silencing by RNAi technologies is delivery. Here we show that chemically modified short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) can silence an endogenous gene encoding apolipoprotein B (apoB) after intravenous injection in mice. Administration of chemically modified siRNAs resulted in silencing of the apoB messenger RNA in liver and jejunum, decreased plasma levels of apoB protein, and reduced total cholesterol. We also show that these siRNAs can silence human apoB in a transgenic mouse model. In our in vivo study, the mechanism of action for the siRNAs was proven to occur through RNAi-mediated mRNA degradation, and we determined that cleavage of the apoB mRNA occurred specifically at the predicted site. These findings demonstrate the therapeutic potential of siRNAs for the treatment of disease.     

RNA interference-mediated inhibition of Hepatitis B Virus replication

Persistent and recurrent infection of hepatitis B virus (HBV) represents one of the most common and severe viral infections of humans, and has caused a formidable health problem in the affected countries. Currently used antiviral drugs have a very limited success on controlling HBV replication and infection. RNA interference (RNAi), a process by which double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) directs sequence-specific degradation of target mRNA in mammalian and plant cells, has recently been used to knockdown gene expression in various species. In this study, we sought to determine whether RNAi-mediated silencing of HBV viral gene expression could lead to the effective inhibition of HBV replication. We first developed RNAi vectors that expressed small interfering RNA (siRNA) and targeted the HBV core or surface gene sequence. Our results demonstrated that these specific siRNAs efficiently reduced the levels of corresponding viral RNAs and proteins, and thus suppressed viral replication. Treatment with siRNA gave the greatest reduction in the levels of HBsAg (92%) and in HBeAg (85%) respectively in the cultured cell medium. Our findings further demonstrated that the RNAi-mediated antiviral effect was sequence-specific and dose-dependent. Therefore, our findings strongly suggest that RNAi-mediated silencing of HBV viral genes could effectively inhibit the replication of HBV, hence RNAi-based strategy should be further explored as a more efficacious antiviral therapy of HBV infection.     

RNA干涉及其在肿瘤研究中的应用

RNAi是双链RNA介导的转录后基因沉默的过程，是一种高效的高特异性抑制基因表达的新途径。通过双链小干涉RNA(siRNA)与一系列蛋白质结合形成siRNA诱导的沉默复合体(RISC)并活化，然后，RISC对靶基因进行识别、降解。与反义方法相比，siRNA具有更好的抑制效果。RNAi的应用将为癌症的基因治疗提供新的方法。     

LNA-mediated microRNA silencing in non-human primates

microRNAs (miRNAs) are small regulatory RNAs that are important in development and disease and therefore represent a potential new class of targets for therapeutic intervention. Despite recent progress in silencing of miRNAs in rodents, the development of effective and safe approaches for sequence-specific antagonism of miRNAs in vivo remains a significant scientific and therapeutic challenge. Moreover, there are no reports of miRNA antagonism in primates. Here we show that the simple systemic delivery of a unconjugated, PBS-formulated locked-nucleic-acid-modified oligonucleotide (LNA-antimiR) effectively antagonizes the liver-expressed miR-122 in non-human primates. Acute administration by intravenous injections of 3 or 10 mg kg(-1) LNA-antimiR to African green monkeys resulted in uptake of the LNA-antimiR in the cytoplasm of primate hepatocytes and formation of stable heteroduplexes between the LNA-antimiR and miR-122. This was accompanied by depletion of mature miR-122 and dose-dependent lowering of plasma cholesterol. Efficient silencing of miR-122 was achieved in primates by three doses of 10 mg kg(-1) LNA-antimiR, leading to a long-lasting and reversible decrease in total plasma cholesterol without any evidence for LNA-associated toxicities or histopathological changes in the study animals. Our findings demonstrate the utility of systemically administered LNA-antimiRs in exploring miRNA function in rodents and primates, and support the potential of these compounds as a new class of therapeutics for disease-associated miRNAs.     

Sequence- and target-independent angiogenesis suppression by siRNA via TLR3

Clinical trials of small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGFA) or its receptor VEGFR1 (also called FLT1), in patients with blinding choroidal neovascularization (CNV) from age-related macular degeneration, are premised on gene silencing by means of intracellular RNA interference (RNAi). We show instead that CNV inhibition is a siRNA-class effect: 21-nucleotide or longer siRNAs targeting non-mammalian genes, non-expressed genes, non-genomic sequences, pro- and anti-angiogenic genes, and RNAi-incompetent siRNAs all suppressed CNV in mice comparably to siRNAs targeting Vegfa or Vegfr1 without off-target RNAi or interferon-alpha/beta activation. Non-targeted (against non-mammalian genes) and targeted (against Vegfa or Vegfr1) siRNA suppressed CNV via cell-surface toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3), its adaptor TRIF, and induction of interferon-gamma and interleukin-12. Non-targeted siRNA suppressed dermal neovascularization in mice as effectively as Vegfa siRNA. siRNA-induced inhibition of neovascularization required a minimum length of 21 nucleotides, a bridging necessity in a modelled 2:1 TLR3-RNA complex. Choroidal endothelial cells from people expressing the TLR3 coding variant 412FF were refractory to extracellular siRNA-induced cytotoxicity, facilitating individualized pharmacogenetic therapy. Multiple human endothelial cell types expressed surface TLR3, indicating that generic siRNAs might treat angiogenic disorders that affect 8% of the world's population, and that siRNAs might induce unanticipated vascular or immune effects.     

Intracellular siRNA delivery with novel spermine based surfactants

The design and development of safe and effective multifunctional siRNA delivery systems are critical for clinical application of RNAi therapeutics. Here we evaluated eight new spermine-based surfactant multifunctional carriers for siRNA delivery. These carriers complexed with siRNA forming stable compact nanoparticles with sizes around 100 nm. The multifunctional carriers mediated higher intracellular siRNA transfection than Lipofectamine-2000. The siRNA nanoparticles of the multifunctional carriers exhibited low cytotoxicity as shown by MTT assay. Three of the eight multifunctional carriers showed higher silencing efficiency than Lipofectamine-2000 in both U87-Luc cells and CHO-GFP cells. SKAHCO showed the highest siRNA delivery efficiency among the carriers. It resulted in 84.6±5.5% silencing of luciferase activity in U87-Luc cells, much higher than that (62.8± 3.4%) from Lipofectamine-2000. In conclusion, the spermine based multifunctional carriers are promising for highly efficient intracellular siRNA delivery.     

磷硫代siRNA的抗肿瘤基因沉默活性研究

由于目前尚无高效合成立体特异性磷硫代siRNAs(PS-siRNAs)的化学体系,本研究针对潜在的癌症治疗靶点PLK1,用a-磷硫代三磷酸腺苷(ATPaS)、a-磷硫代三磷酸胞苷(CTPaS)和a-磷硫代三磷酸尿苷(UTPaS)通过T7RNA聚合酶转录合成了部分磷硫代修饰的Rp-磷硫代siRNAs(Rp-PS-siRNAs),探究了nat-siRNAs和PS-siRNAs血清稳定性和基因沉默活性的差异性。发现酶促合成的磷硫代siRNA几乎不影响siRNA的基因沉默效率,但却显著提高siRNA的血清稳定性。因此,酶促转录合成的Rp-PS-siRNA可望作为siRNA的修饰形式,以延长siRNA的生物活性半衰期,使siRNA广泛应用于生物医学临床研究领域。     

在Hep G2细胞中利用siRNA沉默GFP基因的实验探讨

目的:通过探讨小分子双链RNA(siRNA)通过RNA干扰(RNAi)机制沉默肝癌细胞株Hep G2荧光素报告基因GFP的各项生物学指标,为进一步实验和临床研究提供依据.方法:通过体外实验,对siRNA和siRNA脂质体的稳定性和细胞毒性进行评估;通过荧光标记技术,研究不同时间siRNA脂质体的转染效率;通过荧光显微镜下观察转染细胞和RT-PCR检测靶基因mRNA表达,确定不同种类、形式、剂量的siRNA对靶基因的沉默效能.结果:在空白培养液中,siRNA和siRNA脂质体可稳定至4h,在5%血清中2～4h后明显降解;100nM的siRNA和siRNA脂质体无明显细胞毒性;siRNA脂质体转染细胞株的效率随时间不同而不同,4h可达90%;非特异性siRNA/脂质体无沉默靶基因表达作用,特异性siRNA/脂质体对靶基因的沉默作用在一定范围内随剂量升高(20nM、50nM、100nM)而升高.结论:siRNA的稳定性可满足实验需要,且无明显细胞毒性,特异性siRNA转染肝癌细胞株能有效抑制靶基因表达,用脂质体转染可提高转染效率.siRNA通过RNAi机制沉默靶基因表达,为肿瘤的治疗和基础研究提供了新的工具和思路.     

Animal virus replication and RNAi-mediated antiviral silencing in Caenorhabditis elegans

The worm Caenorhabditis elegans is a model system for studying many aspects of biology, including host responses to bacterial pathogens, but it is not known to support replication of any virus. Plants and insects encode multiple Dicer enzymes that recognize distinct precursors of small RNAs and may act cooperatively. However, it is not known whether the single Dicer of worms and mammals is able to initiate the small RNA-guided RNA interference (RNAi) antiviral immunity as occurs in plants and insects. Here we show complete replication of the Flock house virus (FHV) bipartite, plus-strand RNA genome in C. elegans. We show that FHV replication in C. elegans triggers potent antiviral silencing that requires RDE-1, an Argonaute protein essential for RNAi mediated by small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) but not by microRNAs. This immunity system is capable of rapid virus clearance in the absence of FHV B2 protein, which acts as a broad-spectrum RNAi inhibitor upstream of rde-1 by targeting the siRNA precursor. This work establishes a C. elegans model for genetic studies of animal virus-host interactions and indicates that mammals might use a siRNA pathway as an antiviral response.     

RNAi技术研究进展

RNAi是由双链RNA引起的基因沉默现象，它通过降解具有同源序列的mRNA起作用，特殊设计的siRNA能使目的基因发生特异性沉默．目前，获得siRNA已经非常方便，导入方式最常用的是微注射．RNAi技术有编码区RNAi和启动子区RNAi两大类，均可以产生类似基因敲除的功能。在家蚕功能基因的研究中已经使用了这种方法．随着RNAi技术的不断进步，RNAi可广泛地应用到功能基因组学，药物靶点筛选，疾病治疗等方面．     

RNAi与siRNA在医学中应用的新进展

RNAi（RNA interference,RNAi）是序列特异的双链RNA（dsRNA）使细胞内同源性mRNA降解,产生特异的基因沉默的过程．RNAi最早是由Fire在线虫实验中发现并提出的．随后,在其他动物包括哺乳动物中也发现了RNAi．RNAi技术是一种发展很快并有应用前景的基因控制技术,目前已广泛地应用于多学科的研究,尤以医学领域的研究最为突出,它不仅可用于基础研究,而且为病毒感染性疾病和肿瘤的防治开辟了更为广阔的前景．     

An siRNA-based microbicide protects mice from lethal herpes simplex virus 2 infection

Herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) infection causes significant morbidity and is an important cofactor for the transmission of HIV infection. A microbicide to prevent sexual transmission of HSV-2 would contribute substantially to controlling the spread of HIV and other infections. Because RNA interference (RNAi) provides effective antiviral defence in plants and other organisms, several studies have focused on harnessing RNAi to inhibit viral infection. Here we show that vaginal instillation of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) targeting HSV-2 protects mice from lethal infection. siRNAs mixed with lipid are efficiently taken up by epithelial and lamina propria cells and silence gene expression in the mouse vagina and ectocervix for at least nine days. Intravaginal application of siRNAs targeting the HSV-2 UL27 and UL29 genes (which encode an envelope glycoprotein and a DNA binding protein, respectively) was well tolerated, did not induce interferon-responsive genes or cause inflammation, and protected mice when administered before and/or after lethal HSV-2 challenge. These results suggest that siRNAs are attractive candidates for the active component of a microbicide designed to prevent viral infection or transmission.     

Recognition of small interfering RNA by a viral suppressor of RNA silencing

RNA silencing (also known as RNA interference) is a conserved biological response to double-stranded RNA that regulates gene expression, and has evolved in plants as a defence against viruses. The response is mediated by small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which guide the sequence-specific degradation of cognate messenger RNAs. As a counter-defence, many viruses encode proteins that specifically inhibit the silencing machinery. The p19 protein from the tombusvirus is such a viral suppressor of RNA silencing and has been shown to bind specifically to siRNA. Here, we report the 1.85-A crystal structure of p19 bound to a 21-nucleotide siRNA, where the 19-base-pair RNA duplex is cradled within the concave face of a continuous eight-stranded beta-sheet, formed across the p19 homodimer interface. Direct and water-mediated intermolecular contacts are restricted to the backbone phosphates and sugar 2'-OH groups, consistent with sequence-independent p19-siRNA recognition. Two alpha-helical 'reading heads' project from opposite ends of the p19 homodimer and position pairs of tryptophans for stacking over the terminal base pairs, thereby measuring and bracketing both ends of the siRNA duplex. Our structure provides an illustration of siRNA sequestering by a viral protein.