Designing an effective therapeutic siRNA to silence RdRp gene of SARS-CoV-2

Infect Genet Evol. 2021 Jun 2:104951. doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2021.104951. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe devastating outbreak of COVID-19 has spread all over the world and has become a global health concern. There is no specific therapeutics to encounter the COVID-19. Small interfering RNA (siRNA)-based therapy is an efficient strategy to control human viral infections employing post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) through neutralizing target complementary mRNA. RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) encoded by the viral RdRp gene as a part of the replication-transcription complex can be adopted as an acceptable target for controlling SARS-CoV-2 mediated infection. Therefore, in the current study, accessible siRNA designing tools, including significant algorithms and parameters, were rationally used to design the candidate siRNAs against SARS-COV-2 encoded RdRp. The designed siRNA molecules possessed adequate nucleotide-based and other features for potent gene silencing. The targets of the designed siRNAs revealed no significant matches within the whole human genome, ruling out any possibilities for off-target silencing by the siRNAs. Characterization with different potential parameters of efficacy allowed selecting the finest siRNA among all the designed siRNA molecules. Further, validation assessment and target site accessibility prediction also rationalized the suitability of this siRNA molecule. Molecular docking study between the selected siRNA molecule and componen...

Source: Infection, Genetics and Evolution - June 5, 2021 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Mohammad Mahfuz Ali Khan Shawan Ashish Ranjan Sharma Manojit Bhattacharya Bidyut Mallik Farhana Akhter Md Salman Shakil Md Mozammel Hossain Subrata Banik Sang-Soo Lee Md Ashraful Hasan Chiranjib Chakraborty Source Type: research