Gene silencing made practical: siRNA used to treat neurogenerative disorders in the lab

Darkfrog submitted, created time 5 months 2 weeks (www.jbc.org)

This abstract is about as easy to read as sixteenth-century tax law, but here's the gist: Human neurogenerative disorders, like Huntington's, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gherig's disease) are all caused or exacerbated by the expression of mutant genes. If we switch off the genes--or at least keep them from producing proteins--then the patients might get better. One way to switch off a gene is to inject the cell with a siRNA (short interfering RNA) that complements the gene's product mRNA. This is called gene silencing

2 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: gene silencing Huntingtons disease Alzheimers disease Parkinsons alzheimers huntingtons amyotrophic lateral sclerosis small interfering RNA (siRNA) lou gherig's disease ALS