Novel Cell type-specific aptamer-siRNA delivery system for HIV-1 therapy

Abstract

SummaryThe successful use of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) for therapeutic purposes requires safe and efficient delivery to specific cells and tissues. Here we demonstrate cell type-specific delivery of anti-HIV siRNAs via fusion to an anti-gp120 aptamer. The envelope glycoprotein is expressed on the surface of HIV-1 infected cells, allowing binding and interalization of the aptamer-siRNA chimeric molecules. We demonstrate that the anti-gp120 aptamer-siRNA chimera is specifically taken up by cells expressing HIV-1 gp120, and the appended siRNA is processed by Dicer, releasing an anti-tat/rev siRNA which in turn inhibits HIV replication. We show for the first time a dual functioning aptamer-siRNA chimera in which both the aptamer and the siRNA portions have potent anti-HIV activities and that gp120 expressed on the surface of HIV infected cells can be used for aptamer mediated delivery of anti-HIV siRNAs.RNA interference (RNAi) is a process of sequence-specific post-transcriptional gene silencing triggered by small interfering RNAs (siRNA). The silencing is sequence specific and one of the two strands of the siRNA guides the RNA induced silencing complex (RISC) to the complementary target, resulting in cleavage and subsequent destruction of the target RNA 1 . RNAi is rapidly becoming one of the methods of choice for gene function studies, and is also being exploited for therapeutic applications 2, 3 . The