Improving 27mer DsiRNA Performance

The DsiRNA story marches forward with yet another important publication. We will give you an opportunity to upload the fulltext article at the end of this posting.

Dr. Mark Behlke, Dr John Rossi and team have been gaining deeper understanding of the Mechanism of Dicer-substrate small-interfering RNA (DsiRNA) processing. This understanding is leading to better and better designs of the RNA duplexes. These designs or chemical modifications are necessary steps in the drug design and development process.

This publication looks at design from the perspective of:

Nuclease Stability
Pharmacokinectics
immune response

I believe this is an important publication for researchers wanting to better understand:

The mechanisms behind successful delivery of DsiRNA for gene expression studies.
Variations in potency.

upload article: oligo-18-p187-2008-collingwood-dsirna-modifications1

RNAi Researchers Galvanized by Advances

Technology's Viability in Drug Development Is Finally Established
Author: Elizabeth Lipp
Publication: Genetic Engineering & biotechnology News
Publisher: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers
Date: Jun 1, 2008
Copyright © 2008 GEN Publishing

Article Link: http://www.genengnews.com/articles/chitem.aspx?aid=2493

Notable Quotables:

“Long dsRNAs have been employed for many years as a means to modulate gene expression in plants, yeast, and C. elegans,” noted Mark Behlke, M.D., Ph.D., svp of molecular genetics and CSO at Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT; www.idtdna.com).
“Similar attempts in higher organisms failed due to interferon activation, however we now know that short RNA duplexes can be safely used in mammalian systems both in vitro and in vivo. The technology has rapidly matured, thanks in large part to all that was learned over the past 20 years using antisense oligonucleotides. RNAi is now routinely employed in vivo as an experimental tool and numerous groups are vigorously pursing the use of RNAi compounds as therapeutics. Several siRNA drugs are already in clinical trials and more are in preclinical development.”