RNA-Mediated Gene Silencing in Hematopoietic Cells

In the past few years, the discovery of RNA-mediated genesilencing mechanisms, like RNA interference (RNAi), hasrevolutionized our understanding of eukaryotic gene expression.These mechanisms are activated by double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) andmediate gene silencing either by inducing the sequence-specificdegradation of complementary mRNA or by inhibiting mRNAtranslation. RNAi now provides a powerful experimental tool toelucidate gene function in vitro and in vivo, thereby opening newexciting perspectives in the fields of molecular analysis andeventually therapy of several diseases such as infections andcancer. In hematology, numerous studies have described thesuccessful application of RNAi to better define the role ofoncogenic fusion proteins in leukemogenesis and to exploretherapeutic approaches in hematological malignancies. In thisreview, we highlight recent advances and caveats relating to theapplication of this powerful new methodology to hematopoiesis