Abstract
The use of RNA interference as a mechanism to induce gene silencing is being exploited by an exponentially growing number of investigators. The technique involves the introduction of synthetic short interfering RNA (siRNA) duplexes comprising 21–23 nucleotides into cells. The siRNAs then promote sequence-specific mRNA degradation, essentially enabling the investigator to'knock-out' a gene of choice. Two recent papers [ 1. Novina C.D. et al. siRNA-directed inhibition of HIV-1 infection. Nat. Med. 2002; 8: 681-686 Crossref PubMed Scopus (731) Google Scholar , 2. Jacque J. et al. Modulation of HIV-1 replication by RNA interference. Nature. 2002; 418: 435-438 Crossref PubMed Scopus (763) Google Scholar ] now report the use of the siRNA technique to inhibit HIV-1 replication. The siRNA targets include the genes for CD4 (the cellular receptor for HIV-1), the viral long terminal repeat (LTR) and the viral gag, vif and nef genes. Approximately 20- to 50-times reductions in viral particle production were observed, and the effects were attributed to sequence-specific degradation of viral RNAs.
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