title: Enhancement of RNAi activity by improved siRNA duplexes.
abstract: RNA interference (RNAi) is a powerful tool for suppressing the expression of a gene of interest, in which 21-25 nucleotide short interfering RNA (siRNA) duplexes homologous to the silenced gene function as sequence-specific RNAi mediators. The present study shows that newly designed siRNA duplexes, 'fork-siRNA duplexes', whose sense-stranded siRNA elements carry one to four nucleotide mismatches at the 3'-ends against the antisense-stranded siRNA elements, can enhance RNAi activity over conventional siRNA duplexes in cultured mammalian cells.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Neuroscience, NCNP, 4-1-1 Ogawahigashi, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan. hohkohn@ncnp.go.jp
authors.forename: Hirohiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hohjoh
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D020868:Gene Silencing; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides / Q000378:metabolism; D009843:Oligoribonucleotides / Q000378:metabolism; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D009843:Oligoribonucleotides; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering