#sirna — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #sirna, aggregated by home.social.
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What if, instead of spending years optimizing small molecule chemistry to treat just one disease,
there really was a magic button to switch off any gene we chose?In that case, we could treat
dozens of deadly diseases,
from Alzheimer’s to diabetes
to Huntington’s disease.Welcome to the world of #siRNA therapy.
The story of siRNA begins in 1990,
when the scientists at the DNA Plant Technology Corporation in California
were trying to figure out why their petunias turned white.
They had actually been trying to make their petunias darker,
by adding an extra copy of the gene for an enzyme that produces pigment.Presumably, adding an extra copy of a gene for an enzyme would mean more enzyme and therefore more pigment.
But somehow, the extra copy eliminated the enzyme’s production, rather than boosting it.They named this baffling effect ‘cosuppression’.
Subsequent work by other researchers revealed its cause:
a special kind of RNA molecule,
siRNA, had interfered with the enzyme’s production.
Andrew Fire and Craig Mello later won a Nobel prize for this discovery.Biologists had already known about RNA for several decades.
Similar to DNA, RNA is a complex molecule built from a chain of smaller building blocks that encode genetic information.
But the two differ in one important detail:
the building blocks of RNA have one extra oxygen atom compared to DNA
(hence its name, ribonucleic acid, as opposed to DNA’s ‘deoxy’-ribonucleic acid).
This oxygen is prone to chemical reactions that can break RNA molecules.DNA is stabler and is therefore used to store genetic information in all multicellular life.
RNA molecules tend to be short-lived,
and take many different forms within cells,
carrying instructions,
helping to assemble proteins,
regulating genes,
and catalyzing reactions.And while DNA is ‘double-stranded’, with two linked strands of building blocks twisting into its famous helix shape,
RNA often exists as just one strand.DNA contains the instructions for making proteins,
from the enzymes that digest food to the keratin and collagen that form our hair and skin.
But to get from DNA to protein,
the genetic code is first transcribed into an intermediate RNA molecule,
called ‘messenger RNA’ or mRNA,
which is then translated into protein.If the mRNA is destroyed, the protein won’t be built.
That’s exactly what siRNA, or ‘small interfering RNA’, does:
it’s a short strand of RNA that interferes with the production of protein by destroying mRNA.
An siRNA molecule binds to a piece of mRNA with a matching sequence,
like a kind of barcode,
and targets it for destruction by the cell’s gene-silencing machinery,
which cuts the mRNA into piecessiRNA also explains what happened in the petunias.
Adding an extra copy of the pigment-producing gene triggered the petunias to develop siRNA targeting that sequence,
and because the newly introduced gene and the original gene shared the same sequence,
both were silenced,the flowers lost their pigment and turned white.
This is a naturally occurring process:
siRNA is used to ‘silence’ unwanted genes,
such as those of viruses that have entered the cell.But we can also use it to artificially block the production of proteins that cause disease
https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/switch-off-a-gene-of-your-choice -
The video 🎥 of the #BeilsteinTalk “Computational approaches in improving spermine-based RNA #nanocarriers" with Olivia Merkel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, is NOW available 🔓 in the video portal @TIB_AVPortal of the @tibhannover.
🔗 https://av.tib.eu/media/71537
#DrugDelivery #siRNA
#BeilsteinTalks -
Most genetic screens characterize host factors important for early stages of #viral #infection. This study uses a genome-scale #siRNA screen designed to uncover key pathways influencing early & late stages of #SARSCoV2 infection, including non-canonical NF-κB pathway @PLOSBiology https://plos.io/3ZX0fRe
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Qfitlia (Fitusiran): A Novel siRNA-based Treatment for Haemophilia
Qfitlia (Fitusiran), a novel siRNA-based treatment for haemophilia has received FDA approval............
#Bleedingdisorders #FDA #Fitusiran #Haemophilia #Hemophilia #Qfitlia #siRNA
Umesh Prasad -
Starting TOMORROW, 📅 Nov. 14, 2024, at 🕒 2:30 PM CET: "Computational approaches in improving spermine-based RNA #nanocarriers" with Olivia Merkel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, on 📅 Nov. 14, 2024 🕒 2:30–3:30 PM CET.
Register for FREE 🔗 https://www.beilstein-institut.de/en/talks/nanotechnology-computational-approaches-in-improving-spermine-based-rna-nanocarriers?M=y
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Join the online #BeilsteinTalk "Computational approaches in improving spermine-based RNA #nanocarriers" with Olivia Merkel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, on 📅 Nov. 14, 2024 🕒 2:30–3:30 PM CET.
Participation is FREE! Just register: 🔗 https://www.beilstein-institut.de/en/talks/nanotechnology-computational-approaches-in-improving-spermine-based-rna-nanocarriers?M=y
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Save the date: 📅 Nov. 14, 2024 🕒 2:30–3:30 pm CET
Online #BeilsteinTalk “Computational approaches in improving spermine-based RNA #nanocarriers" with Olivia Merkel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich.
Register for FREE! 🔗 https://www.beilstein-institut.de/en/talks/nanotechnology-computational-approaches-in-improving-spermine-based-rna-nanocarriers?M=y
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#Oligonucleotides are a relatively new( #novel ) class of #drugs that can modulate #gene expression through various mechanisms like #RNA interference, degradation, or splice-modulation.
This includes drugs like small interfering RNA (#siRNA), #microRNA (miRNA), and antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41573-020-0075-7
Paper:
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Tulisan sains populer mengenai desain #siRNA untuk desain agen terapetik. Semoga bermanfaat! 🙏 https://generasipeneliti.id/tulisan.php?id=IDOk5y5bodI8ct&judul=Desain-in-silico-siRNA-dengan-Tools-Bioinformatika-untuk-keperluan-Terapetik #bioinformatika #biomedik #bioteknologi
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We just put in a manuscript using #siRNA for knockdown. Knockdown verified with RT-PCR and Western blot. Saw a phenotype. Rescued it with ectopic expression of the knocked down protein. A reviewer required us to repeat the experiments using #CRISPR, and why we didn''t use crispr in the first place ?#thatsecondreviewer
#academia #cellbiology
A: Because we didn't need to, <expletive>. -
Paper from our team about #siRNA and #COVID19. Already published last year, but maybe still relevant 😌🙂. A Computational Design of siRNA in SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein Gene and Its Binding Capability toward mRNA https://journal.ugm.ac.id/ijc/article/view/68415/0
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Este meme sale en mi próximo artículo/charla sobre microARN. XDDD #xp
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RT @DNA_RNA_Uni
I laughed so hard 😆😅😚#RNAi #siRNA #miRNA #featuredpaper https://mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/23/14755
https://twitter.com/DNA_RNA_Uni/status/1597927406136086528 -
Aedes aegypti Dicer2 mutants
"Our Dicer2 null mutant line is viable and fertile, and only displays minor fitness defects despite being unable to produce siRNAs. The loss of Dicer2 affects early viral replication and systemic viral dissemination of four medically significant arboviruses (chikungunya, Mayaro, dengue, and #zika viruses) representing two viral families. However, measures of virus transmission potential indicate that Dicer2 null mutants and wild-type mosquitoes display an overall similar level of vector competence. Additionally, Dicer2 null mutants undergo significant virus-induced mortality during infection with #chikungunya virus, but not #dengue virus."
#siRNA #crispr #preprint