RNA干扰的研究进展

RNA干扰是指外源双链RNA进入细胞后引起与其同源的mRNA特异性降解的现象,它是真核生物在长期进化中形成的一种保守的防御机制,对真核生物有着重要的意义,它参与真核生物抵御病毒侵染、阻断转座子的异常活动,调控基因表达。RNA干扰已成为一种进行基因功能分析的强有力的工具,并有望成为最有潜力的基因干预治疗方法。     

病毒研究的崭新技术--RNA干扰

RNA分子可参与生物体细胞许多基本的生理活动,继发现核酶、肽核酸和反义RNA等之后,近未有关小干扰RNA及其所致的RNA干扰现象又成为研究热点。小干扰RNA是dsRNA被DICER降解后产生的长19～23核苷酸的小RNA片段,具有5′—磷酸、3′——羟基和2个核苷酸(dTdT或UU)的3′端;而RNA干扰则是由小干扰RNA引起的生物细胞内同源基因的特异性沉默现象,其本质是小干扰RNA与对应的mRNA特异结合,形成降解,从而阻止mRNA的翻译。RNA干扰是生物进化的结果,是生物体对病毒基因等外源核酸侵入的一种保护性反应。当病毒在宿主细胞内进行复制时,病毒RNA可被降解成小干扰RNA,从而在细胞内产生的RNA干扰,通过RNA干扰的作用抑制病毒的增殖。     

反义RNA生物工程与防治病毒性疾病的新途径

反义RNA(antisense RNA)的同义词为干扰mRNA的互补RNA(mRNA-interfering Complemeatary RNA)简称mic RNA。反义RNA与某mRNA(正义RNA)精确互补,它能在转译水平上特异性地阻断某mRNA合成蛋白质。 反义RNA首先在自然界的细菌中被发现。Mizuno等在研究大肠杆菌外膜蛋白Omp C基因时,发现该基因是双向转录的,在Omp C基因上游逆向转录174个碱基的mic F-RNA,其中有一段序列与Omp     

真核生物中的微小RNA及其功能研究进展

真核生物中存在两种主要的非编码RNA(non-coding RNA),在真核生物中发挥重要作用。一类为微小RNA(microRNA,miRNA),另一为小干扰RNA(siRNA)。miRNA大小为19～25nt,在体内与蛋白质形成核糖核蛋白复合体(miRNP),在真核基因的表达调控,生长发育中起重要作用。siRNA在RNA干扰(RNA地 interference,RNAi)途径中起定位特异mRNA的作用。miRNA与siRNA有联系也有区别。miRNA在真核生物中的调控机制具有保守性。     

阿格蛋白2:RNA诱导基因沉默复合物的切片机

RNA干扰是生物体基因表达调节的一种重要方式,由RNA诱导的基因沉默复合物（RISC）来介导完成,这个复合物中除了微小RNA外,最新研究表明阿格蛋白2是其中的主要应答元件,它本身具有核酸内切酶活性,可以有效启动mRNA的剪切反应而实现对基因表达的调节,这个进展使我们对RNA干扰过程有了更为详尽的理解。     

RNA干扰的应用及其意义

RNA干扰(RNA interference,RNAi)是指双链RNA诱导同源mRNA降解从而导致基因表达抑制的现象,其效应分子是一种短片段双链RNA分子,被称为小分子干扰RNA。RNAi技术作为新兴的基因表达抑制方法,在功能基因组学、基因表达调控、基因治疗等领域得到了广泛应用。并将极大促进当前生物科学研究的发展。     

利用RNA干扰技术沉默基因表达在本科实验教学中的设计与实践

RNA干扰是由双链小RNA介导的基因沉默现象,已成为一个被广泛应用的反向遗传学研究技术。为了让学生更好地理解该技术,本实验教学让学生自己选择靶基因,设计小干扰RNA和引物,然后检测小干扰RNA介导的基因沉默效果。以2018年第五组为例,该组挑选了小鼠长链脂酰辅酶A合成酶1 (acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family member 1, Acsl1)为靶基因,设计了两对特异性靶向Acsl1 mRNA的小干扰RNA,通过电穿孔的方式将其转染到3T3-L1中,然后提取细胞总RNA和合成cDNA,最后用相对定量PCR检测mRNA的表达量。结果显示两对小干扰RNA都有60%以上的沉默效果。近3年内,大约83%的学生都能独立完成所有实验并最终成功筛选到至少一对有效的小干扰RNA。该教学实践增强了学生对RNA干扰原理和实验的理解,锻炼了学生的实验与科研能力。     

RNAi的作用机制及其在抗病毒领域的应用

RNA干扰是外源性或内源性双链RNA诱发的mRNA水平上的基因沉默机制。RNA技术具有高效性、特异性。最近将RNA干扰应用于许多病毒性疾病的治疗研究均取得了显著的基因沉默效果,为病毒的预防和治疗开辟了一条新途径。就RNA干扰作用机制及抗病毒效应作一综述。     

小干扰RNA的研究进展

RNA干扰(RNA interference,RNAi)是近年发展起来的一种新技术。RNAi是指通过外源性或内源性的双链RNA在体内诱导靶基因mRNA产生特异性降解,进而引起不同水平的基因沉默,其效应分子主要是小干扰RNA(siRNA)。siRNA是生物界普遍存在的一种抵御外来基因和病毒感染的基因调控方式,也是一种重要的研究工具。大量的研究工作致力于设计合理的siRNA片段用于基因功能研究,并将其作为一种治疗方法用于肿瘤、病毒性疾病等基因治疗以及药物靶向研究。因此本文对siRNA的作用机制、设计原则及其在临床应用中的缺点和解决方法进行综述。     

RNA干扰作用研究进展

RNA干扰 (RNAinterference ,RNAi)是指与内源性mRNA编码区某段序列同源的双链RNA分子 (double strandedRNA ,dsRNA)导入细胞时 ,该mRNA发生特异性的降解 ,导致基因表达的沉默。本文介绍RNAi作用的发现、机制和目前使用的产生RNAi的方法     

HIV-1 TAR element is processed by Dicer to yield a viral micro-RNA involved in chromatin remodeling of the viral LTR

Background  

RNA interference (RNAi) is a regulatory mechanism conserved in higher eukaryotes. The RNAi pathway generates small interfering RNA (siRNA) or micro RNA (miRNA) from either long double stranded stretches of RNA or RNA hairpins, respectively. The siRNA or miRNA then guides an effector complex to a homologous sequence of mRNA and regulates suppression of gene expression through one of several mechanisms. The suppression of gene expression through these mechanisms serves to regulate endogenous gene expression and protect the cell from foreign nucleic acids. There is growing evidence that many viruses have developed in the context of RNAi and express either a suppressor of RNAi or their own viral miRNA.     

RNA interference in mammalian cells by chemically-modified RNA

RNA interference (RNAi) is proving to be a robust and versatile technique for controlling gene expression in mammalian cells. To fully realize its potential in vivo, however, it may be necessary to introduce chemical modifications to optimize potency, stability, and pharmacokinetic properties. Here, we test the effects of chemical modifications on RNA stability and inhibition of gene expression. We find that RNA duplexes containing either phosphodiester or varying numbers of phosphorothioate linkages are remarkably stable during prolonged incubations in serum. Treatment of cells with RNA duplexes containing phosphorothioate linkages leads to selective inhibition of gene expression. RNAi also tolerates the introduction of 2'-deoxy-2'-fluorouridine or locked nucleic acid (LNA) nucleotides. Introduction of LNA nucleotides also substantially increases the thermal stability of modified RNA duplexes without compromising the efficiency of RNAi. These results suggest that inhibition of gene expression by RNAi is compatible with a broad spectrum of chemical modifications to the duplex, affording a wide range of useful options for probing the mechanism of RNAi and for improving RNA interference in vivo.     

Silencing of antiapoptotic survivin gene by multiple approaches of RNA interference technology

Silencing of mammalian gene expression by RNA interference (RNAi) technology can be achieved using small interfering RNA (siRNA) or short hairpin RNA (shRNA). However, the relative effectiveness of these two approaches is not known. It is also not clear whether gene-specific shRNA transcribed from an RNA polymerase II (Pol II)-directed promoter in a fusion form can disrupt the targeted gene expression. Here, we report that using both luciferase and antiapoptotic survivin genes as targets, both siRNA and shRNA approaches significantly silenced the targeted gene expression in cancer cells. We further demonstrated that shRNAs transcribed from an RNA Pol II-mediated promoter in a green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion form at the 3'-untranslated region silenced luciferase and survivin expression as well, suggesting that the extra RNA sequence outside of the shRNA hairpin does not disrupt shRNA function. We also showed that silencing of survivin expression selectively induces apoptosis in transfected cells. Together, we have validated multiple approaches of RNAi technology using both survivin and luciferase genes as targets and demonstrated for the first time that GFP-shRNAs transcribed from an RNA Pol II-mediated promoter could mediate gene silencing, which may lead to new directions for the application of RNAi technology.     

两种高效 RNA 干涉载体系统的构建及应用

在真核细胞基因功能研究中, RNA 干涉 (RNAi) 已成为一种强有力的选择性沉默基因表达的实验工具. 建立一套可在哺乳动物培养细胞中高效、经济地表达 siRNA 的载体系统是 RNA 干涉研究的必要前提之一. 从 HepG2 细胞基因组 DNA 中克隆得到 H1 全长启动子 (374 bp),以之为基础构建了两套 RNA 干涉载体系统, pSL 和带有绿色荧光蛋白 (EGFP) 标签的 pESL ,并对 p53 基因进行了相应的 RNA 干涉研究. 干涉质粒瞬时转染 HepG2 细胞后,分别利用半定量 RT-PCR 和蛋白质印迹检测 p53 表达水平. 与商品化载体 pSilencer^TM 3.1-H1 hygro 相比, pSL 和 pESL 对 p53 基因表达具有更高的干涉效率. 结果显示：干涉载体 pSL 和 pESL 能高效特异地下调目的基因表达,可作为哺乳动物中基因功能分析的有效工具.     

RNA interference for the organizer-specific gene Xlim-1 in Xenopus embryos

Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) interferes with gene expression in various species, a phenomenon known as RNA interference (RNAi). We show here that RNAi is also effective in modifying gene expression in Xenopus embryos. First, expression of an exogenous luciferase gene as a reporter in embryos was reduced by coinjection with dsRNA corresponding to the luciferase gene. Next, injection of dsRNA for Xlim-1, a homeobox gene suggested to be involved in Spemann organizer functions, reduced the endogenous level of Xlim-1 mRNA and produced embryos with reduced eyes or anterior truncation at high efficiency. In addition, injection of an antisense expression construct of Xlim-1 elicited phenotypes very similar to those of Xlim-1 dsRNA-injected embryos. These results indicate the effectiveness of RNAi for loss of function studies in Xenopus embryos, and the importance of Xlim-1 in head formation.     

Selective silencing by RNAi of a dominant allele that causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

RNA interference (RNAi) can achieve sequence-selective inactivation of gene expression in a wide variety of eukaryotes by introducing double-stranded RNA corresponding to the target gene. Here we explore the potential of RNAi as a therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) caused by mutations in the Cu, Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) gene. Although the mutant SOD1 is toxic, the wild-type SOD1 performs important functions. Therefore, the ideal therapeutic strategy should be to selectively inhibit the mutant, but not the wild-type SOD1 expression. Because most SOD1 mutations are single nucleotide changes, to selectively silence the mutant requires single-nucleotide specificity. By coupling rational design of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) with their validation in RNAi reactions in vitro and in vivo, we have identified siRNA sequences with this specificity. A similarly designed sequence, when expressed as small hairpin RNA (shRNA) under the control of an RNA polymerase III (pol III) promoter, retains the single-nucleotide specificity. Thus, RNAi is a promising therapy for ALS and other disorders caused by dominant, gain-of-function gene mutations.