RNA-mediated RNA Interference Research Articles

Long double-stranded RNA-mediated RNA interference as a tool to achieve site-specific silencing of hypothalamic neuropeptides

RNA interference (RNAi) has become a popular tool to silence gene expression in a variety of in vitro and in vivo systems. However, it has met with limited success in inhibiting gene expression in adult mammals. Here we demonstrate that long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) can be used to create a “site-specific”, transient knockdown of genes in a fashion that is phenotypically akin to genetically manipulated organisms. Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) that regulate a variety of physiological processes including the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA axis), energy and water homeostasis were used as model systems. Stereotaxic injections of dsRNA against CRF and AVP in the PVN specifically abolished the expression of these genes in the PVN leaving expression in other loci intact. Control dsRNA did not affect CRF or AVP expression in any brain region, suggesting that dsRNA did not shut down global protein synthesis. ANOVA showed significant main effects of silencing of CRF on dampening of the stress-activated release of adrenocorticotrophin hormone (ACTH) ( F (2,7)=4.87; p<0.047). Silencing of AVP resulted in increased water consumption, increased urine output and decreased urine osmolality as compared to control dsRNA-treated rats. Furthermore, dsRNA had no obvious deleterious effects on body weight or food consumption, variables considered essential in ruling out adverse physiologic effects in animal models. Thus, using long dsRNA, we were able to ascertain site-specific roles of CRF and AVP in adult rats without any developmental compensation and in a wild-type background.

The Pro-hypertrophic Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Protein p8 Is Degraded by the Ubiquitin/Proteasome System in a Protein Kinase B/Akt- and Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3-dependent Manner, whereas Endothelin Induction of p8 mRNA and Renal Mesangial Cell Hypertrophy Require NFAT4

Renal disease is a common complication of diabetes. The initiating events in diabetic nephropathy are triggered by hyperglycemia and, possibly, advanced glycation end products. Subsequently, excess levels of vasoactive peptides (especially endothelin-1 (ET-1)) accumulate in the diabetic kidney, and there is evidence that these peptides mediate many of the pathophysiological changes associated with diabetic renal disease. These changes include an excess deposition of extracellular matrix proteins into the glomerular basement membrane and renal mesangial cell hypertrophy. Our transcriptional profiling studies have revealed that the p8 gene, which encodes a putative basic helix-loop-helix protein, is strongly induced in ET-1-treated renal mesangial cells and in an animal model of diabetic nephropathy. RNA interference experiments indicated that the p8 gene is required for ET-1-induced mesangial cell hypertrophy. Here, we show that the p8 polypeptide is a phosphoprotein subject to constitutive degradation by the ubiquitin/proteasome system. This degradation is mediated by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and protein kinase B/Akt. By contrast, stabilization of the p8 protein requires glycogen synthase kinase-3. Finally, short interfering RNA-mediated RNA interference experiments indicated that ET-1-stimulated mesangial cell hypertrophy and p8 mRNA induction require the NFAT4 transcription factor. Thus, p8 levels in the cell are likely maintained by a balance between signal-dependent transcriptional induction and proteolysis.

Smurf1 Facilitates Myogenic Differentiation and Antagonizes the Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2-induced Osteoblast Conversion by Targeting Smad5 for Degradation

Controlled proteolysis mediated by Smad ubiquitination regulatory factors (Smurfs) plays a crucial role in modulating cellular responses to signaling of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) superfamily. However, it is not clear what influences the selectivity of Smurfs in the individual signaling pathway, nor is it clear the biological function of Smurfs in vivo. Using a mouse C2C12 myoblast cell differentiation system, which is subject to control by both TGF-beta and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), here we examine the role of Smurf1 in myogenic differentiation. We show that increased expression of Smurf1 promotes myogenic differentiation of C2C12 cells and blocks the BMP-induced osteogenic conversion but has no effect on the TGF-beta-induced differentiation arrest. Consistent with an inhibitory role in the BMP signaling pathway, the elevated Smurf1 markedly reduces the level of endogenous Smad5, whereas it leaves unaltered that of Smad2, Smad3, and Smad7, which are components of the TGF-beta pathway. Adding back Smad5 from a different source to the Smurf1-overexpressing cells restores the BMP-mediated osteoblast conversion. Finally, by depletion of the endogenous Smurf1 through small interfering RNA-mediated RNA interference, we demonstrate that Smurf1 is required for the myogenic differentiation of C2C12 cells and plays an important regulatory role in the BMP-2-mediated osteoblast conversion.

A TILLING reverse genetics tool and a web-accessible collection of mutants of the legume Lotus japonicus.

Reverse genetics aims to identify the function of a gene with known sequence by phenotypic analysis of cells or organisms in which the function of this gene is impaired. Commonly used strategies for reverse genetics encompass transposon mutagenesis (Tissier et al., 1999) and RNA-mediated gene silencing or RNA interference (Voinnet, 2002). We adopted a complementary strategy to set up a reverse genetics tool for the legume Lotus japonicus that identifies individuals carrying point mutations in any gene of interest within a large population of ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS)-mutagenized M2 plants. This strategy was first described by McCallum et al. (2000a,b) using the acronym TILLING (Targeted Induced Local Lesions in Genomes). The target sequence is PCR amplified from pooled M2 individuals. DNA with point mutations are detected by melting and reannealing of the PCR products. This results in the formation of heteroduplex DNA in which one strand originates from the mutant and the other from the wild-type PCR product. A mismatch occurs at the site of the point mutation, which can be detected using mismatch-specific endonucleases such as CEL I from celery (Apium graveolens; Yang et al., 2000). This enzyme recognizes mismatches in heteroduplex DNA and cleaves DNA specifically at the mismatched site. The cleavage products can be separated by gel electrophoresis, typically sequencing-type denaturing PAGE. This method of mismatch detection is amenable to pooling strategies. In the Arabidopsis TILLING facility, DNA of eight M2 plants is mixed to form a pool (Colbert et al., 2001). At this pool size, a population of 768 individuals can be screened by PCR in a 96-well microtiter plate, and run on one 96-well gel, each well representing eight individuals. Individuals from pools yielding cleavage products are then PCR amplified individually to identify the mutation bearing plant, progeny of which will segregate the mutation of interest.

Drosophila Cells Using RNA Interference" chap="27">Analysis of Protein Phosphatase Function in Drosophila Cells Using RNA Interference

Double stranded RNA-mediated RNA interference is an effective method to downregulate the levels of protein phosphatases in Drosophila S2 cells. In many cases, nearly complete ablation of the targeted protein can be achieved. RNAi-mediated knockdown of protein phosphatases is akin to pharmacological inhibition with drugs and can be used to determine the roles of specific protein phosphatases in intact cells. RNAi can avoid the problems associated with less than adequate specificity of phosphatase inhibitors. Although information about the signaling pathways present in Drosophila S2 cells is not as well developed as many mammalian cell lines, the Drosophila system is particularly attractive for the study of oligomeric phosphatases like PP2A. Drosophila has far fewer isoforms for the phosphatases we have examined. This is especially true of the genes for PP2A regulatory subunits where over 50 isoforms are present in mammals but only four are present in Drosophila. Once hypotheses regarding phosphatase function have been generated from RNAi experiments in S2 cells, they can potentially be tested utilizing recent advances in the use of siRNAs to conduct RNAi experiments in mammalian cell lines. RNAi in Drosophila S2 cells has proven to be a powerful technique for identifying physiological functions of signaling proteins. The RNAi method is straightforward and works routinely with almost all proteins. RNAi in S2 cells can be used to assess the role of signaling proteins in specific pathways and as a screening tool to identify new roles for signaling molecules. For example, results from RNAi analysis of PP2A show that regulation of MAP kinase signaling involves the R2/B regulatory subunit and that the R5/B56 subunits play a previously unidentified role in apoptosis. While RNAi in Drosophila S2 cells is a powerful tool for analyzing protein function, the method does have limitations. Foremost, cells may exhibit an RNAi response to any nonspecific dsRNA, even in the absence of interferon. Therefore, physiological processes that respond to nonspecific dsRNA will be difficult to study. A second limitation is the need to produce antibodies that react with Drosophila isoforms. We have found that many antibodies to mammalian protein phosphatases do not cross-react with the corresponding Drosophila proteins. Finally, the physiology and signaling pathways of S2 cells have not been extensively studied. This lack of information limits the number of available readouts that can be used when assessing the effects of protein knockdowns.

Inhibition of HIV-1 infection by small interfering RNA-mediated RNA interference.

RNA interference (RNAi) is an ancient antiviral response that processes dsRNA and associates it into a nuclease complex that identifies RNA with sequence homology and specifically cleaves it. We demonstrate that RNAi mediated by 21-bp dsRNA specifically inhibits HIV-1 infection of permanent cell lines and primary CD4(+) T cells. Inhibition of HIV replication was measured by p24 Gag protein content in supernatant, Northern blot analysis, and DNA PCR for products of reverse transcription. The inhibition occurred at two points in the viral life cycle, after fusion and before reverse transcription and during transcription of viral RNA from integrated provirus. Treatment of HIV-infected activated CD4(+) T cells with a fluorine-derivatized siRNA that is resistant to RNase A yielded similar inhibition of HIV infection. In addition, the derivatized siRNA could be delivered without lipofectin complexing and in the presence of serum. The identification of RNAi activity against HIV-1 presents a new approach to study viral infections and a proof of concept of RNAi antiviral activity in mammalian cells.

Rescue of polyglutamine-mediated cytotoxicity by double-stranded RNA-mediated RNA interference.

RNA interference (RNAi) is a mechanism that appears to control unwanted gene expression in a wide range of species. In Drosophila, RNAi is most effectively induced by double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) of over approximately 80 nucleotides (nt) and in mammalian cells an RNAi-like inhibition of gene expression has been shown to be mediated by dsRNAs of approximately 21-23 nt. To test if RNAi can be used to specifically down-regulate a human disease-related transcript we have used Drosophila and human tissue culture models of the dominant genetic disorder spinobulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA). A variety of different dsRNAs were assessed for the ability to inhibit expression of transcripts that included a truncated human androgen receptor (ar) gene containing different CAG repeat lengths (16-112 repeats). In Drosophila cells, dsRNAs corresponding to non-repetitive sequences mediated a high degree of sequence-specific inhibition, whereas RNA duplexes containing CAG repeat tracts only induced gene-specific inhibition when flanking ar sequences were included; dsRNAs containing various lengths of CAG repeats plus ar sequences were unable to induce allele-specific interference. In mammalian cells we tested sequence-specific small dsRNAs of 22 nt; these rescued the toxicity and caspase-3 activation induced by plasmids expressing a transcript encoding an expanded polyglutamine tract. This study demonstrates the feasibility of targeting a transcript associated with an important group of genetic diseases by RNAi.