RNAi and brain function: was McConnell on the right track?
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N R Smalheiser1, H Manev, E Costa
1UIC Psychiatric Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago MC912, 1601 W. Taylor Street, Chicago, IL 60612, USA. smalheiser@psych.uic.edu
Abstract:
RNA interference (RNAi), one of the hottest topics of molecular biology research today, has unique features that are eerily reminiscent of the phenomenon of "RNA-mediated memory transfer," a controversial line of work that was investigated with great enthusiasm in the 1960s. If not a coincidence, then this suggests taking a new look at RNA-mediated modulation of neural function and raises the possibility that RNAi might be one of the physiologic mechanisms that regulate long-term gene expression in the brain.
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