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Updated: Nov 16, 2025

DNA Vector-based RNA Interference to Study Gene Function in Cancer
Published on: June 4, 2012
Emerging role of RNA interference in immune cells engineering and its therapeutic synergism in immunotherapy
Masuma Akter Monty1, Md Ariful Islam2, Xu Nan1
1Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics and New Drug Development, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
Abstract:
RNAi effectors (e.g. siRNA, shRNA and miRNA) can trigger the silencing of specific genes causing alteration of genomic functions becoming a new therapeutic area for the treatment of infectious diseases, neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. In cancer treatment, RNAi effectors showed potential immunomodulatory actions by down-regulating immuno-suppressive proteins, such as PD-1 and CTLA-4, which restrict immune cell function and present challenges in cancer immunotherapy. Therefore, compared with extracellular targeting by antibodies, RNAi-mediated cell-intrinsic disruption of inhibitory pathways in immune cells could promote an increased anti-tumour immune response. Along with non-viral vectors, DNA-based RNAi strategies might be a more promising method for immunomodulation to silence multiple inhibitory pathways in T cells than immune checkpoint blockade antibodies. Thus, in this review, we discuss diverse RNAi implementation strategies, with recent viral and non-viral mediated RNAi synergism to immunotherapy that augments the anti-tumour immunity. Finally, we provide the current progress of RNAi in clinical pipeline.
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