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Nature Biotechnology 24, 566–571 (1 June 2006) | doi:10.1038/nbt1206

Stable expression of shRNAs in human CD34+ progenitor cells can avoid induction of interferon responses to siRNAs in vitro

Marjorie A Robbins , Mingjie Li , Irene Leung , Haitang Li , Doris V Boyer , Yong Song , Mark A Behlke & John J Rossi

RNA interference occurs when cytoplasmic small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) enter the RNA-induced silencing complex and one strand guides cleavage of the target RNA by the Argonaute 2 protein. A significant concern when applying siRNAs or expressing small hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) in human cells is activation of the interferon (IFN) response.