Comparative studies of various artificial microRNA expression vectors for RNAi in mammalian cells

Artificial microRNA (amiRNA) has recently become an important RNA interference (RNAi) technology for gene therapy and gene function studies. Here nine expression strategies were employed to construct plasmid vectors expressing amiRNA (amiR-Fluc) against firefly luciferase (Fluc). Our results indicate that all nine vectors can successfully produce mature amiR-Fluc and specifically suppress the expression of Fluc, although the RNAi efficiency in different mammalian cells displays obvious differences. Among these nine vectors, three can efficiently co-express DsRed reporter gene linked with amiR-Fluc cassette. Moreover, the recommended number of concatenated amiRNAs in a multi-amiRNA expression vector should not be more than four, and the relative position of an amiRNA in the multi-amiRNA expression vector has no apparent influence on its RNAi activity. In summary, all these results described here provide valuable information for the rational design and application of amiRNA expression vector.