Determinants of Cytokine Induction by Small Interfering RNA in Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Synthetic small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) can trigger a strong innate immune response in mammalian cells. This nonspecific side effect may hinder the application of siRNAs as tools in gene silencing. Chemically synthesized siRNAs, including traditional 19-mers with 2-nt 3' overhangs, longer duplexes with blunt or 3' overhangs, and asymmetric duplexes with a blunt end and a 2-nt 3' overhang, can evoke strong dose-dependent interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) release in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). This response is independent of retinoic acid-inducible gene I but may involve endosomal toll-like receptors (TLRs). The immunostimulatory effect of the siRNAs is directly related to either or both of the strands of the duplex in a sequence-dependent manner. However, although some single-stranded RNAs and siRNAs potently evoked both IFN-alpha and TNF-alpha induction, these responses were not always coupled. In accordance with this, specific chemical modifications differentially altered cytokine production, suggesting recruitment of different TLRs in a sequence-dependent manner.