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Short interfering RNA‐directed inhibition of hepatitis B virus replication
Author(s) -
Hamasaki Keisuke,
Nakao Kazuhiko,
Matsumoto Kojiro,
Ichikawa Tatsuki,
Ishikawa Hiroki,
Eguchi Katsumi
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(03)00400-9
Subject(s) - small interfering rna , rna interference , rna , rna silencing , transfection , dna directed rna interference , microbiology and biotechnology , virology , gene silencing , biology , rna induced transcriptional silencing , hepatitis b virus , rna dependent rna polymerase , hepatitis b virus pre beta , trans acting sirna , viral replication , chemistry , virus , gene , hepatitis b virus dna polymerase , genetics
RNA interference (RNAi) is the process by which double‐stranded RNA directs sequence‐specific degradation of mRNA. In mammalian cells, RNAi can be triggered by 21‐nucleotide duplexes of short interfering RNA (siRNA). We examined effects of siRNA on hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication. Human hepatoma cells were transfected with HBV DNA and siRNA against HBV‐pregenome RNA. Transfection experiments demonstrated that the siRNA reduced the amount of HBV‐pregenome RNA and resulted in reduction of the levels of replicative intermediates and viral protein. Our results indicate that siRNA‐mediated gene silencing inhibits HBV replication through suppression of viral RNA, which may be useful as a potential therapeutic modality.