Abstract
RNA interference (RNAi) is the process of sequence-specific, post-tanscriptional gene silencing initiated by double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). The short interference RNA (siRNA) cleaves target RNA even in mammalian cells without adverse effects of long dsRNA such as an interferon response, and works much more efficiently than antisense oligonucleotide and ribozyme. The clinical application of siRNA has been tried especially for the viral diseases. There are still important problems for application of gene therapy including off-target effect and gene delivery of siRNA, but a rapid progress can be expected because of the extremely high efficiency of siRNA.
