Use of double stranded RNA hairpin duplexes in gene silencing

摘要

A DNA polynucleotide is described herein having a modified sequence of a targetgene, wherein any one type of nucleotide in the target gene sequence has been chemicallymodified to another type of nucleotide; and a complementary sequence of the unmodifiedtarget gene; wherein either one of the modified sequence or the complementarysequence is in a reverse orientation to the other sequence; and wherein the RNAsequence transcribed from the DNA polynucleotide forms a duplex between themodified sequence and the complementary sequence so that a long double strandedRNA (IdsRNA) duplex forms between the modified and complementary sequenceswith base pair mismatches where the nucleotides have been modified, the IdsRNAduplex being capable of inhibiting expression of the target gene. RNA polynucleotidesand IdsRNA duplexes transcribed by the DNA polynucleotide are also described,as is a method for producing the IdsRNA duplexes. These IdsRNA duplexes can beused in gene silencing.