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Updated: May 12, 2026

Dual CRISPR-Interference Strategy for Targeting Synthetic Lethal Interactions Between Non-Coding RNAs in Cancer Cells
Published on: May 30, 2025
RNA interference-mediated simultaneous silencing of four genes using cross-shaped RNA
Tae Yeon Lee1, Chan Il Chang, Dooyoung Lee
1Global Research Laboratory for RNAi Medicine, Department of Chemistry, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, Korea.
Abstract:
The structural flexibility of RNA interference (RNAi)-triggering nucleic acids suggests that the design of unconventional RNAi trigger structures with novel features is possible. Here, we report a cross-shaped RNA duplex structure, termed quadruple interfering RNA (qiRNA), with multiple target gene silencing activity. qiRNA triggers the simultaneous down-regulation of four cellular target genes via an RNAi mechanism. In addition, qiRNA shows enhanced intracellular delivery and target gene silencing over conventional siRNA when complexed with jetPEI, a linear polyethyleneimine (PEI). We also show that the long antisense strand of qiRNA is incorporated intact into an RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). This novel RNA scaffold further expands the repertoire of RNAi-triggering molecular structures and could be used in the development of therapeutics for various diseases including viral infections and cancer.
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