IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v418y2002i6896d10.1038_nature00873.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Short interfering RNA confers intracellular antiviral immunity in human cells

Author

Listed:
  • Leonid Gitlin

    (University of California
    Program in Neuroscience, University of California)

  • Sveta Karelsky

    (University of California)

  • Raul Andino

    (University of California)

Abstract

Gene silencing mediated by double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is a sequence-specific, highly conserved mechanism in eukaryotes. In plants, it serves as an antiviral defence mechanism1,2,3. Animal cells also possess this machinery but its specific function is unclear4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Here we demonstrate that dsRNA can effectively protect human cells against infection by a rapidly replicating and highly cytolytic RNA virus. Pre-treatment of human and mouse cells with double-stranded, short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) to the poliovirus genome markedly reduces the titre of virus progeny and promotes clearance of the virus from most of the infected cells. The antiviral effect is sequence-specific and is not attributable to either classical antisense mechanisms or to interferon and the interferon response effectors protein kinase R (PKR) and RNaseL. Protection is the result of direct targeting of the viral genome by siRNA, as sequence analysis of escape virus (resistant to siRNAs) reveals one nucleotide substitution in the middle of the targeted sequence. Thus, siRNAs elicit specific intracellular antiviral resistance that may provide a therapeutic strategy against human viruses.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonid Gitlin & Sveta Karelsky & Raul Andino, 2002. "Short interfering RNA confers intracellular antiviral immunity in human cells," Nature, Nature, vol. 418(6896), pages 430-434, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:418:y:2002:i:6896:d:10.1038_nature00873
    DOI: 10.1038/nature00873
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature00873
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature00873?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:418:y:2002:i:6896:d:10.1038_nature00873. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.