abstract |
A non-therapeutic method of inducing ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) of a target gene in a cell, using an isolated nucleic acid molecule comprising a regulatory sequence operably linked to a nucleic acid sequence encoding a ribonucleic acid precursor ( RNA) genetically manipulated, wherein the precursor comprises (i) a first stem portion comprising a sequence of 18 to 30 nucleotides that is completely complementary to a sequence of a messenger RNA (mRNA) of the target gene; (ii) a second stem portion comprising a sequence of 18 to 30 nucleotides that is sufficiently complementary to the first stem portion to hybridize with the first stem portion to form a duplex stem; and (iii) a 4-20 nucleotide loop portion that connects the two stem portions. |