抑制RNA沉默现象的机理及其在生物医学领域内的应用

Mechanisms of Suppression Effects of RNA Silencing and Its Application for The Field of Biomedicine

RNA沉默在机体防御病毒入侵和调控基因表达中发挥着重要的作用,目前已成为一种有效的工具应用于基因功能研究和疾病治疗等领域.RNA沉默现象普遍存在于真核细胞中,然而在宿主与病毒漫长的进化过程中,病毒已经演化出一系列逃逸或抑制RNA沉默作用的方法和途径,使RNA沉默效果显著降低,另一方面,哺乳动物体细胞自身也存在调节RNA沉默功能从而使生命活动的调节更加精细完善.为了使RNA沉默发挥它的潜在效应,人们设计出一系列的策略针对抑制RNA沉默效应以达到弱化抑制的目的.全面总结抑制RNA沉默机制及其应用,从而使人们充分认识到使用RNA沉默技术时应考虑到存在的不利因素.

It is widely accepted that RNA silencing or RNA interference plays a crucial role in defending viruses from invasion and regulating gene expression, and has become a very potent tool for genetic function studies and some disease therapies. RNA silencing ubiquitously exists in eukaryotic cells, however, during the boundless process of synergistic evolution for the host and viruses, viruses have gained capacities of escaping or suppressing RNA silencing to make RNA interference sterile. On the other hand, some studies have revealed that mammiferous cells themselves also could regulate the effects of RNA silencing, which presents the regulation of vital activities under a more perfect condition. In order to develop the potential function of RNA silencing, people have worked out a number of strategies to decrease the suppression effects of RNA silencing. Here, all kinds of suppress mechanisms and application about RNA silencing were summarized in order to make people take cognizance of the disadvantage of RNA silencing technology while using it.