i-Fect Assisted Transfection of ASIC-siRNAs

Dr. Eric Lingueglia and his team at LabEx Ion Channel Science and Therapeutics, 06560 Valbonne, France continue to do excellent work using our i-Fect siRNA Transfection Kit. Here they use the kit to help validate the potential of a new class of three-finger peptides from the black mamba to abolish pain through inhibition of ASICs expressed either in central or peripheral neurons: Sylvie Diochot, Anne Baron, Miguel Salinas, Dominique Douguet, Sabine Scarzello, Anne-Sophie Dabert-Gay, Delphine Debayle, Valérie Friend, Abdelkrim Alloui, Michel Lazdunski, Eric Lingueglia. Black mamba venom peptides target acid-sensing ion channels to abolish pain. Nature (2012)doi:10.1038/nature11494.

...Locally designed siRNAs targeting ASIC1 (si-ASIC1a/1b, GCCAAGAAGUUCAACAAAUdtdt), ASIC2 (si-ASIC2a/2b, UGAUCAAAGAGAAGCUAUUdtdt) and ASIC2a (si-ASIC2a, AGGCCAACUUCAAACACUAdtdt) have been validated in vitro in COS-7 cells transfected with myc-ASIC1a, ASIC1b, myc-ASIC2a or myc-ASIC2b, and the relevant siRNA or a control siRNA (si-CTR, GCUCACACUACGCAGAGAUdtdt) with TransIT-LT1 and transIT-TKO (Mirus), respectively. Cells were lysed 48 h after transfection and processed for western blot analysis to assess the amount of ASIC1a protein with the anti-Myc A14 antibody (1:500; Santa Cruz Biotechnology) or the anti-ASIC1 antibody (N271/44; 1:300; NeuroMab) and a monoclonal antibody against actin (AC-40; 1:1,000; Sigma) as a loading control. siRNAs were intrathecally injected into mice (2 µg per mouse at a ratio of 1:4 (w/v) with i-Fect (Neuromics)) twice a day for 3 days. After 3 days of treatment, the paw-flick latency was measured and the residual effect of mambalgin-1 (intrathecal or intraplantar, 34 µM) or the carrageenan (intraplantar, 2%)-induced hyperalgesia was tested. For validation of the in vivo effect of the siRNAs, lumbar DRGs or lumbar dorsal spinal cord were removed after the last siRNA injection for total RNA isolation (RNeasy kits, Qiagen) followed by cDNA synthesis (AMV First-Strand cDNA synthesis kit (Invitrogen) and High Capacity RNA-to-cDNA Kit, (Applied Biosystems)). The relative amounts of ASIC transcripts were evaluated by quantitative reverse-transcription PCR in a Light-Cycler 480 (Roche Products). Pre-designed and validated TaqMan assays for ASIC1 (ASIC1a and ASIC1b; Mm01305998_mH), ASIC1a (Mm01305996_m1), ASIC2 (ASIC2a and ASIC2b; Mm00475691_m1), ASIC3 (Mm00805460_m1) and 18S ribosomal RNA (Mm03928990_g1) were from Applied Biosystems. Each cDNA sample was run in triplicate and results were normalized against 18S and converted to fold induction relative to control siRNA treatment...