Development of RNA interference-based therapeutics and application of multi-target small interfering RNAs.

RNA interference (RNAi) has been proven in recent years to be a newly advanced and powerful tool for development of therapeutic agents toward various unmet medical needs such as cancer, in particular, a great attention has been paid to the development of antineoplastic agents. Recent success in clinical trials related to RNAi-based therapeutics on cancer and ocular disease has validated that small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) constitute a new promising class of therapeutics. Currently, a great wealth of multi-target based siRNA structural modifications is available for promoting siRNA-mediated gene silencing with low side effects. Here, the latest developments in RNAi-based therapeutics and novel structural modifications described for siRNAs--in particular multi-target siRNAs--are reviewed.