Small Interfering RNAs -- A New Concept in Antiviral Therapy

Although our ability to treat viral diseases such as herpes and HIV continues to advance, therapeutic options remain complex and expensive, and new agents are needed. Recently, several studies have shown that small sequences of RNA can trigger sequence-specific degradation of cellular RNA, thereby blocking cellular protein production. These small interfering RNA sequences (siRNAs) need only be approximately 20- to 22-mer in size, too small to elicit an interferon response. Two groups of researchers have now shown that siRNAs have potential as antiviral agents.

Randall and colleagues, using a hepatitis C virus replicon system that models HCV growth, assessed the ability of siRNAs to influence hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication in hepatoma ce…