University of Duisburg-Essen, Medical Research Centre, Institute of Pharmacogenetics, Hufelandstrasse 55, 45147 Essen, Germany.
Curr Pharm Des. 2014;20(2):278-83. doi: 10.2174/13816128113199990027.
RNA interference (RNAi) has quickly proven to be an immensely useful tool for studying gene function and validation of potential drug targets in almost all organisms that possess the required set of proteins of the interference pathway. In protozoan parasites like Plasmodium, Toxoplasma, Entamoeba, Giardia, Trypanosoma, and Leishmania, this set of enzymes is represented divergently. Hitherto, no RNAi-related genes like Dicer and Argonaute have been identified in Plasmodium and Leishmania species, respectively. However, non-canonical RNAi-related pathways might be present in both parasites, as it has been recently demonstrated in Plasmodium. In this review, we discuss existing challenges and future directions for developing RNAi as a tool for studying gene function and as a possible clinical application against Plasmodium.
RNA 干扰 (RNAi) 已迅速被证明是一种非常有用的工具，可用于研究基因功能，并验证几乎所有具有干扰途径所需蛋白的生物体中的潜在药物靶标。在原生动物寄生虫中，如疟原虫、刚地弓形虫、内阿米巴、蓝氏贾第鞭毛虫、锥虫和利什曼原虫，这组酶的表现形式存在差异。迄今为止，在疟原虫和利什曼原虫中分别尚未鉴定出 Dicer 和 Argonaute 等 RNAi 相关基因。然而，正如最近在疟原虫中所证明的那样，这两种寄生虫中可能存在非典型的 RNAi 相关途径。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了将 RNAi 作为研究基因功能的工具以及作为针对疟原虫的潜在临床应用的发展所面临的现有挑战和未来方向。
