Antiviral RNAi [Methods in Molec Bio 721]

Little over a decade ago, Andrew Fire, Craig Mello, and colleagues demonstrated that double-stranded (ds)RNA induces sequence-specifc gene silencing in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (RNA interference, RNAi). This work converged with research in plants, in which related RNA-based silencing processes were known to exist. Ever since, research in the feld has progressed at an astonishing rate, resulting in our appreciation of small silencing RNAs as central regulators of gene expression, as guards of genome integrity, and as essential mediators of antiviral defense. The discovery that synthetic small interfering RNA (siRNA) induces gene silencing in mammals, by Thomas Tuschl and colleagues in 2001, has further boosted the development of novel therapeutics and experimental tools based on RNAi technology.