RNA interference (RNAi) refers to the conserved sequence-specific degradation of messenger RNA mediated by small interfering RNA (siRNA) duplexes 21–25 nucleotides in length. RNAi may be activated with exogenous effectors to silence pathology-causing genes has generated considerable interest in using this approach for therapy. Utilizing RNAi to counter gene expression has been a particularly active field of research, and a vast number of diseases, especially those caused by virus infections and cancer, have been shown to be susceptible to RNAi-mediated inhibition.
