Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) has been awarded funding from the National Institutes of Health ARRA to continue work on its research project: 'Gene Silencing with U1 Adapter Oligonucleotides'.
As a new class of synthetic nucleic acids, the U1 adapters are capable of down-regulating the expression of genes of interest at the pre-mRNA stage, via a mechanism of action distinct from antisense or SiRNA.
This technology is based on oligos annealing to a specific region within the 3'-terminal exon of a gene to inhibit pre-mRNA processing and subsequent gene expression and can silence even RNAi refractory genes.
The mechanism utilised by the U1 adapters allow it to be used additively with existing gene technologies, or individually to target genes that have not responded well to RNAi-based techniques.
This technology will make a significant addition to the gene silencing tool kit available to researchers.
The work will be performed in collaboration with doctors Sam Gunderson and Rafal Goraczniak at Silagene, a biotechnology company working on U1 Adaptor therapeutics.
IDT also provides researchers with its Screening Dicer-substrate SiRNA (DSiRNA) duplex product, which is suitable for small-scale in vitro applications.
The peptide-based double-stranded RNA (DSRNA) transduction delivery system, Transductin, complexes with DSiRNAs, and delivers them across cell membranes via macropinocytosis.
This mechanism minimises the risk of triggering an innate immune response and has far less toxicity than cationic lipid mediated transfection.
