Functional Selection of shRNA Loops from Randomized Retroviral Libraries

Gene silencing by RNA interference (RNAi) can be achieved by the ectopic expression of tailored short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) which after export to the cytoplasm are processed by Dicer and incorporated into the RNA induced silencing complex (RISC). Design rules for shRNAs have been the focus of several studies, but only a few reports have turned the attention to the sequence of the loop-region. In this work we selected high-functional and low-functional shRNA loops from retroviral hairpin-loop-libraries in an RNAi reporter assay. The procedure revealed a very significant and stem sequence-dependent effect of the loop on shRNA function and although neither strong consensus loop sequence nor structural motifs could be identified, a preferred loop sequence (5'-UGUGCUU-3') was found to support robust knock down with little stem sequence dependency. These findings will serve as a guide for designing shRNAs with improved knock down capacity.     

A virus-encoded inhibitor that blocks RNA interference in mammalian cells

Nodamura virus (NoV) is a small RNA virus that is infectious for insect and mammalian hosts. We have developed a highly sensitive assay of RNA interference (RNAi) in mammalian cells that shows that the NoV B2 protein functions as an inhibitor of RNAi triggered by either short hairpin RNAs or small interfering RNAs. In the cell, NoV B2 binds to pre-Dicer substrate RNA and RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC)-processed RNAs and inhibits the Dicer cleavage reaction and, potentially, one or more post-Dicer activities. In vitro, NoV B2 inhibits Dicer-mediated RNA cleavage in the absence of any other host factors and specifically binds double-stranded RNAs corresponding in structure to Dicer substrates and products. Its abilities to bind to Dicer precursor and post-Dicer RISC-processed RNAs suggest a mechanism of inhibition that is unique among known viral inhibitors of RNAi.     

Inputs and outputs for chromatin-targeted RNAi

Plant gene silencing is targeted to transposons and repeated sequences by small RNAs from the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. Like classical RNAi, RNA-directed chromatin silencing involves the cleavage of double-stranded RNA by Dicer endonucleases to create small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which bind to the Argonaute protein. The production of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) must be carefully controlled to prevent inappropriate silencing. A plant-specific RNA polymerase IV (Pol IV) initiates siRNA production at silent heterochromatin, but Pol IV-independent mechanisms for making dsRNA also exist. Downstream of siRNA biogenesis, multiple chromatin marks might be targeted by Argonaute-siRNA complexes, yet mechanisms of chromatin modification remain poorly understood. Genomic studies of siRNA target loci promise to reveal novel biological functions for chromatin-targeted RNAi.     

The contributions of dsRNA structure to Dicer specificity and efficiency

Dicer processes long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) and pre-microRNAs to generate the functional intermediates (short interfering RNAs and microRNAs) of the RNA interference pathway. Here we identify features of RNA structure that affect Dicer specificity and efficiency. The data presented show that various attributes of the 3' end structure, including overhang length and sequence composition, play a primary role in determining the position of Dicer cleavage in both dsRNA and unimolecular, short hairpin RNA (shRNA). We also demonstrate that siRNA end structure affects overall silencing functionality. Awareness of these new features of Dicer cleavage specificity as it is related to siRNA functionality provides a more detailed understanding of the RNAi mechanism and can shape the development of hairpins with enhanced functionality.     

Increased Potency and Longevity of Gene Silencing Using Validated Dicer Substrates

Chemically synthesized small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are tools used for silencing the expression of a single gene. They are mainly employed in basic research applications, but may also have great potential in therapeutic applications. Longer double-stranded RNAs, such as Dicer-substrate 27mers, trigger gene silencing through the intrinsic RNAi pathway. The design of these Dicer-substrate 27mers has been optimized so they can be oriented by Dicer to consistently select the antisense (guide) strand after cleavage to shorter siRNAs, leading to predictable mRNA cleavage. In this paper we describe evidence that these Dicer-substrate 27mers produce more potent and sustained gene silencing for four genes when compared with synthetic 21mers that have the same guide-strand sequence. Furthermore, improved silencing by these 27mers is often more pronounced at lower concentrations.     

Suppression of RNA interference by adenovirus virus-associated RNA

We show that human adenovirus inhibits RNA interference (RNAi) at late times of infection by suppressing the activity of two key enzyme systems involved, Dicer and RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). To define the mechanisms by which adenovirus blocks RNAi, we used a panel of mutant adenoviruses defective in virus-associated (VA) RNA expression. The results show that the virus-associated RNAs, VA RNAI and VA RNAII, function as suppressors of RNAi by interfering with the activity of Dicer. The VA RNAs bind Dicer and function as competitive substrates squelching Dicer. Further, we show that VA RNAI and VA RNAII are processed by Dicer, both in vitro and during a lytic infection, and that the resulting short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are incorporated into active RISC. Dicer cleaves the terminal stem of both VA RNAI and VA RNAII. However, whereas both strands of the VA RNAI-specific siRNA are incorporated into RISC, the 3' strand of the VA RNAII-specific siRNA is selectively incorporated during a lytic infection. In summary, our work shows that adenovirus suppresses RNAi during a lytic infection and gives insight into the mechanisms of RNAi suppression by VA RNA.     

Decay of mRNAs targeted by RISC requires XRN1, the Ski complex, and the exosome

RNA interference (RNAi) is a conserved RNA silencing pathway that leads to sequence-specific mRNA decay in response to the presence of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). Long dsRNA molecules are first processed by Dicer into 21-22-nucleotide small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). The siRNAs are incorporated into a multimeric RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) that cleaves mRNAs at a site determined by complementarity with the siRNAs. Following this initial endonucleolytic cleavage, the mRNA is degraded by a mechanism that is not completely understood. We investigated the decay pathway of mRNAs targeted by RISC in Drosophila cells. We show that 5' mRNA fragments generated by RISC cleavage are rapidly degraded from their 3' ends by the exosome, whereas the 3' fragments are degraded from their 5' ends by XRN1. Exosome-mediated decay of the 5' fragments requires the Drosophila homologs of yeast Ski2p, Ski3p, and Ski8p, suggesting that their role as regulators of exosome activity is conserved. Our findings indicate that mRNAs targeted by siRNAs are degraded from the ends generated by RISC cleavage, without undergoing decapping or deadenylation.     

Variations of the 3' protruding ends in synthetic short interfering RNA (siRNA) tested by microinjection in Drosophila embryos

Short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are the processing product originating from long double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) that are cleaved by the RNase III-like ribonuclease Dicer. As siRNAs mediate cleavage of specific single-stranded target RNAs, they are essential intermediates of RNA interference (RNAi). When applied in synthetic form, siRNAs likewise can induce the silencing process in the absence of long dsRNAs. Here, we tested variations of a conventional synthetic siRNA that had been used successfully to silence the Drosophila notch gene. The variants had two 3 ' -terminal deoxynucleotides in their protruding single-stranded ends. In one case, the deoxynulceotides would match to the notch mRNA, whereas the other variant had nonmatching deoxy-T residues, representing a widely used siRNA design. siRNAs with different combinations of sense and antisense strands were injected into Drosophila embryos at two different concentrations. We found that the all-ribonucleotide siRNA gave the best inhibition of notch expression. The combination of two modified strands with 3 ' -terminal deoxynucleotides was effective, but if combined with a sense or antisense ribostrand, the efficacy dropped. The siRNAs with nonmatching 3 ' -terminal TT residues showed a reduced silencing potential, which became evident at low concentration. An siRNA with a nonmatching 3 ' -terminal ribonucleotide in the antisense strand retained most of its silencing potential in accordance with the hypothesis that primer extension for generation of ssRNA from single-stranded mRNA does not operate in Drosophila.     

针对leader序列的siRNA能够有效抑制SARS冠状病毒多个mRNA的表达

小干扰RNAs(siRNAs)能够有效降解具有互补序列的RNA.在SARS-CoV的基因组RNA和所有亚基因组RNA的5′端均有一段共同的leader序列,而且该leader序列在不同的病毒分离物中高度保守,因此leader序列可作为一个用于抑制SARS-CoV复制的有效靶点.研究表明,针对leader序列化学合成的siRNA和DNA载体表达的shRNA都可以有效抑制SARS-CoV mRNA的表达.Leader序列特异的siRNA或shRNA不仅可以有效抑制leader与报告基因EGFP融合基因的表达,而且还可以有效抑制leader与刺突蛋白(spikeprotein)、膜蛋白(membrane protein)和核衣壳蛋白(nucleocapsid protein)基因的融合转录产物的表达.结果表明,针对leader序列的RNA干扰可以发展成为一种抗SARS-CoV治疗的有效策略.     

Functional and intracellular localization properties of U6 promoter-expressed siRNAs, shRNAs, and chimeric VA1 shRNAs in mammalian cells

RNA polymerase III (Pol III) expression systems for short hairpin RNAs (U6 shRNAs or chimeric VA1 shRNAs) or individually expressed sense/antisense small interfering RNA (siRNA) strands have been used to trigger RNA interference (RNAi) in mammalian cells. Here we show that individually expressed siRNA expression constructs produce 21-nucleotide siRNAs that strongly accumulate as duplex siRNAs in the nucleus of human cells, exerting sequence-specific silencing activity similar to cytoplasmic siRNAs derived from U6 or VA1-expressed hairpin precursors. In contrast, 29-mer siRNAs separately expressed as sense/antisense strands fail to elicit RNAi activity, despite accumulation of these RNAs in the nucleus. Our findings delineate different intracellular accumulation patterns for the three expression strategies and suggest the possibility of a nuclear RNAi pathway that requires 21-mer duplexes.     

Right- and left-loop short shRNAs have distinct and unusual mechanisms of gene silencing

Small hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) having duplex lengths of 25–29 bp are normally processed by Dicer into short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) before incorporation into the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). However, shRNAs of ≤19 bp [short shRNAs (sshRNAs)] are too short for Dicer to excise their loops, raising questions about their mechanism of action. sshRNAs are designated as L-type or R-type according to whether the loop is positioned 3′ or 5′ to the guide sequence, respectively. Using nucleotide modifications that inhibit RNA cleavage, we show that R- but not L-sshRNAs require loop cleavage for optimum activity. Passenger-arm slicing was found to be important for optimal functioning of L-sshRNAs but much less important for R-sshRNAs that have a cleavable loop. R-sshRNAs could be immunoprecipitated by antibodies to Argonaute-1 (Ago1); complexes with Ago1 contained both intact and loop-cleaved sshRNAs. In contrast, L-sshRNAs were immunoprecipitated with either Ago1 or Ago2 and were predominantly sliced in the passenger arm of the hairpin. However, ‘pre-sliced’ L-sshRNAs were inactive. We conclude that active L-sshRNAs depend on slicing of the passenger arm to facilitate opening of the duplex, whereas R-sshRNAs primarily act via loop cleavage to generate a 5′-phosphate at the 5′-end of the guide strand.     

TRBP, a regulator of cellular PKR and HIV-1 virus expression, interacts with Dicer and functions in RNA silencing

Dicer is a key enzyme involved in RNA interference (RNAi) and microRNA (miRNA) pathways. It is required for biogenesis of miRNAs and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and also has a role in the effector steps of RNA silencing. Apart from Argonautes, no proteins are known to associate with Dicer in mammalian cells. In this work, we describe the identification of TRBP (human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) transactivating response (TAR) RNA-binding protein) as a protein partner of human Dicer. We show that TRBP is required for optimal RNA silencing mediated by siRNAs and endogenous miRNAs, and that it facilitates cleavage of pre-miRNA in vitro. TRBP had previously been assigned several functions, including inhibition of the interferon-induced double-stranded RNA-regulated protein kinase PKR and modulation of HIV-1 gene expression by association with TAR. The TRBP-Dicer interaction shown raises interesting questions about the potential interplay between RNAi and interferon-PKR pathways.     

The Role of Human Dicer-dsRBD in Processing Small Regulatory RNAs

One of the most exciting recent developments in RNA biology has been the discovery of small non-coding RNAs that affect gene expression through the RNA interference (RNAi) mechanism. Two major classes of RNAs involved in RNAi are small interfering RNA (siRNA) and microRNA (miRNA). Dicer, an RNase III enzyme, plays a central role in the RNAi pathway by cleaving precursors of both of these classes of RNAs to form mature siRNAs and miRNAs, which are then loaded into the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). miRNA and siRNA precursors are quite structurally distinct; miRNA precursors are short, imperfect hairpins while siRNA precursors are long, perfect duplexes. Nonetheless, Dicer is able to process both. Dicer, like the majority of RNase III enzymes, contains a dsRNA binding domain (dsRBD), but the data are sparse on the exact role this domain plays in the mechanism of Dicer binding and cleavage. To further explore the role of human Dicer-dsRBD in the RNAi pathway, we determined its binding affinity to various RNAs modeling both miRNA and siRNA precursors. Our study shows that Dicer-dsRBD is an avid binder of dsRNA, but its binding is only minimally influenced by a single-stranded – double-stranded junction caused by large terminal loops observed in miRNA precursors. Thus, the Dicer-dsRBD contributes directly to substrate binding but not to the mechanism of differentiating between pre-miRNA and pre-siRNA. In addition, NMR spin relaxation and MD simulations provide an overview of the role that dynamics contribute to the binding mechanism. We compare this current study with our previous studies of the dsRBDs from Drosha and DGCR8 to give a dynamic profile of dsRBDs in their apo-state and a mechanistic view of dsRNA binding by dsRBDs in general.     

The dsRNA binding protein RDE-4 interacts with RDE-1, DCR-1, and a DExH-box helicase to direct RNAi in C. elegans

Double-stranded (ds) RNA induces potent gene silencing, termed RNA interference (RNAi). At an early step in RNAi, an RNaseIII-related enzyme, Dicer (DCR-1), processes long-trigger dsRNA into small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). DCR-1 is also required for processing endogenous regulatory RNAs called miRNAs, but how DCR-1 recognizes its endogenous and foreign substrates is not yet understood. Here we show that the C. elegans RNAi pathway gene, rde-4, encodes a dsRNA binding protein that interacts during RNAi with RNA identical to the trigger dsRNA. RDE-4 protein also interacts in vivo with DCR-1, RDE-1, and a conserved DExH-box helicase. Our findings suggest a model in which RDE-4 and RDE-1 function together to detect and retain foreign dsRNA and to present this dsRNA to DCR-1 for processing.     

Dual modes of RNA-silencing suppression by Flock House virus protein B2

As a counter-defense against antiviral RNA silencing during infection, the insect Flock House virus (FHV) expresses the silencing suppressor protein B2. Biochemical experiments show that B2 binds to double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) without regard to length and inhibits cleavage of dsRNA by Dicer in vitro. A cocrystal structure reveals that a B2 dimer forms a four-helix bundle that binds to one face of an A-form RNA duplex independently of sequence. These results suggest that B2 blocks both cleavage of the FHV genome by Dicer and incorporation of FHV small interfering RNAs into the RNA-induced silencing complex.     

Towards Antiviral shRNAs Based on the AgoshRNA Design

RNA interference (RNAi) can be induced by intracellular expression of a short hairpin RNA (shRNA). Processing of the shRNA requires the RNaseIII-like Dicer enzyme to remove the loop and to release the biologically active small interfering RNA (siRNA). Dicer is also involved in microRNA (miRNA) processing to liberate the mature miRNA duplex, but recent studies indicate that miR-451 is not processed by Dicer. Instead, this miRNA is processed by the Argonaute 2 (Ago2) protein, which also executes the subsequent cleavage of a complementary mRNA target. Interestingly, shRNAs that structurally resemble miR-451 can also be processed by Ago2 instead of Dicer. The key determinant of these “AgoshRNA” molecules is a relatively short basepaired stem, which avoids Dicer recognition and consequently allows alternative processing by Ago2. AgoshRNA processing yields a single active RNA strand, whereas standard shRNAs produce a duplex with guide and passenger strands and the latter may cause adverse off-target effects. In this study, we converted previously tested active anti-HIV-1 shRNA molecules into AgoshRNA. We tested several designs that could potentially improve AgoshRNA activity, including extension of the complementarity between the guide strand and the mRNA target and reduction of the thermodynamic stability of the hairpins. We demonstrate that active AgoshRNAs can be generated. However, the RNAi activity is reduced compared to the matching shRNAs. Despite reduced RNAi activity, comparison of an active AgoshRNA and the matching shRNA in a sensitive cell toxicity assay revealed that the AgoshRNA is much less toxic.     

Minimizing variables among hairpin-based RNAi vectors reveals the potency of shRNAs

RNA interference (RNAi) is a cellular process regulating gene expression and participating in innate defense in many organisms. RNAi has also been utilized as a tool to query gene function and is being developed as a therapeutic strategy for several diseases. Synthetic small interfering (siRNAs) or expressed stem–loop RNAs (short-hairpin RNAs [shRNAs] or artificial microRNAs [miRNAs]) have been delivered to cultured cells and organisms to inhibit expression of a variety of genes. A persistent question in the field, however, is which RNAi expression system is most suitable for distinct applications. To date, shRNA- and artificial miRNA-based strategies have been compared with conflicting results. In prior comparisons, sequences required for efficient RNAi processing and loading of the intended antisense strand into the RNAi-induced silencing complex (RISC) were not considered. We therefore revisited the shRNA–miRNA comparison question. Initially, we developed an improved artificial miRNA vector and confirmed the optimal shRNA configuration by altering structural features of these RNAi substrates. Subsequently, we engineered and compared shRNA- and miRNA-based RNAi expression vectors that would be processed to yield similar siRNAs that exhibit comparable strand biasing. Our results demonstrate that when comparison variables are minimized, the shRNAs tested were more potent than the artificial miRNAs in mediating gene silencing independent of target sequence and experimental setting (in vitro and in vivo). In addition, we show that shRNAs are expressed at considerably higher levels relative to artificial miRNAs, thus providing mechanistic insight to explain their increased potency.