Advancements in Polymeric Systems for Nucleic Acid Delivery

Abstract

RNA interference (RNAi) has been suggested as a potential treatment method to improve current chemotherapeutic regimens. It is a sequence-specific, post-transcriptional gene silencing mechanism in animals and plants that targets mRNA encoded by the mutant gene. RNA-based strategies are useful in targeting the mutations that results in a gain of function wherein RNA levels are modified and includes the use of antisense oligonucleotide, triplex-forming oligonucleotides, aptamers, trans-splicing, segmental trans-splicing, ribozymes, DNAzymes, siRNA, and miRNA (Chitkara, Singh, & Mittal, 2016). Among these, siRNA and miRNA have generated a lot of interest as they could be easily synthesized, do not require genome integration, and thus could curtail potential problems of insertional mutagenesis. These are 20–25 base pair-long RNA oligonucleotides that are incorporated into the pre-RISC (RNA-induced