Kwok T, Heinrich J, Jung-Shiu J, Meier MG, Mathur S, Moelling K. Reduction of gene expression by a hairpin-loop structured oligodeoxynucleotide: alternative to siRNA and antisense.
Biochim Biophys Acta Gen Subj 2009;
1790:1170-8. [PMID:
19505533 DOI:
10.1016/j.bbagen.2009.05.017]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2008] [Revised: 04/29/2009] [Accepted: 05/22/2009] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
We previously described the inhibition of HIV-1 replication by a 54-mer hairpin-loop structured oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) A, which binds the polypurine tract (PPT) on HIV-1 RNA. ODN A was shown to lead to reduced viral RNA in virions or early during infection.
METHODS AND RESULTS
Here we demonstrated that ODN A was able to cause hydrolysis of viral RNA not only by retroviral RT-associated RNase H but also cellular RNase H1 and RNase H2 in vitro. Furthermore, ODN A reduced gene expression in a dose-dependent manner in a cell-based reporter assay where a PPT sequence was inserted in the 5' untranslated region of the reporter gene. The efficacy of ODN A was higher than that of its siRNA and antisense counterparts. By knocking down cellular RNases H, we showed that RNase H1 contributed to the gene silencing by ODN A but the possibility of a partial contribution of RNase H-independent mechanisms could not be ruled out.
GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE
Our findings highlight the potential application of hairpin-loop structured ODNs for reduction of gene expression in mammalian cells and underscore the possibility of using ODN A to trigger the hydrolysis of HIV RNA in infected cells by cellular RNases H.
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