siRNA及其在哺乳动物中的应用

RNA干扰现象已经在多种生物中发现，但是在多数哺乳动物中尚未发现自然存在RNA干扰的证据。因此最初RNA干扰技术在哺乳动物细胞中的应用受到很大的限制。直到对RNA干扰作用机制有了较深入的了解以后，主要是小干扰RNA的发现使RNA干扰技术在哺乳动物中的应用得以推广。本文介绍了RNA干扰，重点描述了小干扰RNA的发现、特点、现有制备方法以及应用。

RNA INTERFERENCE IN MAMMALS WITH SMALL INTERFERING RNA

Although the phenomenon of RNA interference (RNAi) has been discovered in many organisms, there is no evidence to support that RNAi exists naturally in a majority of mammals. Accordingly, at the beginning the RNAi technique can't be applied in most of the mammalian cells. Fortunately, the emergence of so called small interfering RNAs (siRNA) breaks the limitation of application in mammals. The paper reviews the discovery, features, strategy of preparation and applications of siRNA.