scispace - formally typeset
Journal ArticleDOI

Recognizing and avoiding siRNA off-target effects for target identification and therapeutic application.

Aimee L. Jackson, +1 more
- 01 Jan 2010 - 
- Vol. 9, Iss: 1, pp 57-67
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
The types of off-target effects of siRNAs and methods to mitigate them are described to help enable effective application of this exciting technology.
Abstract
Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are widely used to study gene function owing to the ease with which they silence target genes, and there is considerable interest in their potential for therapeutic applications. In a remarkably short time since their discovery, siRNAs have entered human clinical trials in various disease areas. However, rapid acceptance of the use of siRNAs has been accompanied by recognition of several hurdles for the technology, including a lack of specificity. Off-target activity can complicate the interpretation of phenotypic effects in gene-silencing experiments and can potentially lead to unwanted toxicities. Here, we describe the types of off-target effects of siRNAs and methods to mitigate them, to help enable effective application of this exciting technology.

read more

Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI

Non-viral vectors for gene-based therapy

TL;DR: The biological barriers to gene delivery in vivo are introduced and recent advances in material sciences, nanotechnology and nucleic acid chemistry that have yielded promising non-viral delivery systems are discussed, some of which are currently undergoing testing in clinical trials.
Journal ArticleDOI

Delivery materials for siRNA therapeutics

TL;DR: An introduction to the biological challenges that siRNA delivery materials aim to overcome is provided, as well as a discussion of the way that the most effective and clinically advanced classes of si RNA delivery systems are designed to surmount these challenges.
Journal ArticleDOI

RNA therapeutics: beyond RNA interference and antisense oligonucleotides

TL;DR: Three RNA-based therapeutic technologies exploiting various oligonucleotides that bind to RNA by base pairing in a sequence-specific manner yet have different mechanisms of action and effects are discussed.
Journal ArticleDOI

High-throughput functional genomics using CRISPR–Cas9

TL;DR: A review of the latest applications of CRISPR-Cas9 in mammalian functional genomics screens is presented in this article, which covers related genome-scale applications of Cas9 for either gene knockout or transcriptional modulation.
Journal ArticleDOI

Therapeutic genome editing: prospects and challenges

TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss current progress toward developing programmable nuclease-based therapies as well as future prospects and challenges, and discuss the potential to directly correct genetic mutations in affected tissues and cells to treat diseases that are refractory to traditional therapies.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI

RNAi: Double-Stranded RNA Directs the ATP-Dependent Cleavage of mRNA at 21 to 23 Nucleotide Intervals

TL;DR: It is found that RNAi is ATP dependent yet uncoupled from mRNA translation, suggesting that the 21-23 nucleotide fragments from the dsRNA are guiding mRNA cleavage.
Journal ArticleDOI

A cellular function for the RNA-interference enzyme Dicer in the maturation of the let-7 small temporal RNA.

TL;DR: In Drosophila melanogaster a developmentally regulated precursor RNA is cleaved by an RNA interference-like mechanism to produce mature let-7 stRNA, which regulates developmental timing in Caenorhabditis elegans and probably in other bilateral animals.
Journal ArticleDOI

Nuclear Export of MicroRNA Precursors

TL;DR: Exposure of Exportin-5 (Exp5) mediates efficient nuclear export of short miRNA precursors (pre-miRNAs) and its depletion by RNA interference results in reduced miRNA levels.
Journal ArticleDOI

Knocking down barriers: advances in siRNA delivery

TL;DR: An update on the progress of RNAi therapeutics is provided and novel synthetic materials for the encapsulation and intracellular delivery of nucleic acids are highlighted.
Journal ArticleDOI

Expression profiling reveals off-target gene regulation by RNAi

TL;DR: This paper used gene expression profiling to characterize the specificity of gene silencing by siRNAs in cultured human cells and found that siRNA-specific rather than target-specific signatures revealed direct silencing of nontargeted genes containing as few as eleven contiguous nucleotides of identity to the siRNA.
Related Papers (5)