Designing and Synthesis of a siRNA against Angiopoietin‐2 for the Treatment of Neovascularization Associated to Diabetic Retinopathy

Abstract

Diabetic retinopathy (RD) is a pathology that causes changes in the retina, for example exudates, microhemorrhages, neovascularizations, etc., which leads to loss of sight and is the third cause of blindness in the world. Among the mechanisms involved in neovascularization are angiogenic factors like angiopoietins (Angpt), especially angiopoietin‐2 (Angpt2), which has been reported that increase the formation of new vessels. For this reason, the aim of this study is to design and synthesize an siRNA against to Angpt2. Male Wistar rats were administered with streptozotocin (STZ) to induce diabetes, after 4 weeks the biochemical parameters, the neovascularization (junctions and lacunarity) and the expression of the Angpt2 were determined in the retina. The siRNA was designed with the siRNA Wizard v3.1 and RNA fold webserver software programs and was synthesized by MERMADE 8 equipment. The results showed that the number of junctions and the levels of Angpt2 of the diabetic rats were higher than the controls significantly, while the lacunarity was significantly lower than controls, on the other hand, the region susceptible to silencing could be from 1416 to 1436. Thus, we can conclude that early diabetes produces an increase in Angpt2 and neovascularization, which could be reduced by the siRNA to Angpt2.Support or Funding InformationGrants: Instituto Politécnico Nacional (SIP‐20194983), Programa Institucional de Formación de Investigadores del IPN (BEIFI No. 2177), Scholarship by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT No.418913) and Comisión de Operación y Fomento de Actividades del IPN (COFAA).This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.