Gene-Silencing Inhaler Shows First Success Preventing Human Disease

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 - 12:22 in Biology & Nature

RSV Quiet down, you viruses CDC/Dr. Craig LyerlaSuccess with silencing respiratory virus could lead to protection for lung-transplant patients and infants RNA interference (RNAi) has steadily advanced the promise of using gene silencing to block the spread of viruses or even cancer. Now the technique has proven effective in humans for the first time as a nasal spray which shuts down a common respiratory virus, New Scientist reports. RNA molecules typically help genes make proteins as a basic function of biological existence. But snippets of RNA known as short interfering RNA (siRNA) can destroy other RNA molecules with a complementary sequence of letters. Scientists targeted the genes of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which is the number-one cause of infant hospitalization in the U.S. but is more or less harmless for adults. Researchers at the University of Tennessee in Memphis tested a nasal spray containing siRNA or placebo on 85 healthy adults, and...

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