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Using RNA-interference to Investigate the Innate Immune Response in Mouse Macrophages
Published on: November 3, 2014
RNA interference induced by siRNAs modified with 4'-thioribonucleosides in cultured mammalian cells
Shuichi Hoshika1, Noriaki Minakawa, Hiroyuki Kamiya
1Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hokkaido University, Kita-12, Nishi-6, Kita-Ku, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan.
Abstract:
Short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) variously modified with 4'-thioribonucleosides against the Photinus luciferase gene were tested for their induction of the RNA interference (RNAi) activity in cultured NIH/3T3 cells. Results indicated that modifications at the sense-strand were well tolerated for RNAi activity except for full modification with 4'-thioribonucleosides. However, the activity of siRNAs modified at the antisense-strand was dependent on the position and the number of modifications with 4'-thioribonucleosides. Since modifications of siRNAs with 4'-thioribonucleosides were well tolerated in RNAi activity compared with that of 2'-O-methyl nucleosides, 4'-thioribonucleosides might be potentially useful in the development of novel and effective chemically modified siRNAs.
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