Xu Yunhe, Linde Annika, Larsson Ola, Thormeyer Dorit, Elmen Joacim, Wahlestedt Claes, Liang Zicai
Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics, Karolinska Institute, SE-17177 Stockholm, Sweden.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2004 Apr 9;316(3):680-7. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2004.02.100.
The concept of small interfering RNA (siRNA) has been extended to include not only short double-stranded RNA of 19-25bp, but also single-stranded antisense RNA of the same length, since such single-stranded antisense siRNAs were recently found to be able to inhibit gene expression as well. We made comprehensive comparison of double- and single-stranded siRNA functions in RNA interference (RNAi), targeting multiple sites and different mRNAs, measuring RNAi effects at different time-points and in different cell lines, and examining response curves. Duplex siRNAs were found to be more potent than single-stranded antisense siRNAs. This was verified by the observation that single-stranded antisense siRNAs, which were inefficient in some cases when used alone, could be rescued from inefficiency by sequentially transfecting with the sense siRNAs. This result suggests that the structural character of siRNA molecules might be a more important determinant of siRNA efficiency than the cellular persistence of them.
小干扰RNA（siRNA）的概念已得到扩展，不仅包括19 - 25个碱基对的短双链RNA，还包括相同长度的单链反义RNA，因为最近发现这种单链反义siRNA也能够抑制基因表达。我们对双链和单链siRNA在RNA干扰（RNAi）中的功能进行了全面比较，针对多个位点和不同的mRNA，在不同时间点和不同细胞系中测量RNAi效应，并检查响应曲线。发现双链siRNA比单链反义siRNA更有效。这一点通过以下观察得到证实：单链反义siRNA在某些情况下单独使用时效率低下，但通过与有义siRNA顺序转染可以从低效状态中挽救过来。这一结果表明，siRNA分子的结构特征可能比它们在细胞中的持久性更重要地决定了siRNA的效率。
