RNA-inducing silencing complex

Fig. 1 Bioresponsive polyplexes. (a) Systemic circulation of shielded polyplexes in blood stream and attachment to cell surface receptor (b) endocytosis into endosomes, deshielding by cleavage of PEG linkers and activation of membrane-destabilizing component by acidic pH or other means (c) endosomal escape into cytosol (d) siRNA transfer to form a cytosolic RNA-induced silencing complex complex (e) cytosolic migration and intranuclear import of pDNA (/) presentation of pDNA in accessible form to the transcription machinery...

The siRNAs assemble into a complex called RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) and unwind in the process. The single stranded siRNAs then attach to complementary RNA molecules, thus targeting these RNAs for destruction—a process that is called gene knockdown. 

Fig. 22.1. A model of gene silencing. Long, double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) are processed into 20-26 nucleotide small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) by Dicer (Step 1). The siRNAs associate with an RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC, Step 2), unwinding and activating in the process (Step 3). The antisense strand of the siRNA guides the RISC to complementary mRNA molecules (Step 4), which are cleaved and destroyed (Step 5). Sense and antisense RNA strands are indicated by thick and thin lines, respectively.

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