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Silencing prostate cancer

Nature Biotechnology volume 27, pages 821–823 (2009)Cite this article

Systemic delivery of an siRNA–aptamer chimera leads to prostate cancer regression in mice.

Harnessing RNA interference for therapy has the potential to modulate targets that are undruggable by conventional agents. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) can be generated to specifically silence any endogenous or viral mRNA, but efficient delivery of siRNA to a particular cell type or organ remains a key challenge1. In this issue, Giangrande and colleagues2 improve the delivery and activity of a previously described RNA aptamer–siRNA conjugate directed against prostate cancer3. Whereas the earlier conjugate required intratumoral injection for efficacy, the new, optimized conjugates achieve growth inhibition of prostate cancer xenografts after systemic injection.

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Figure 1: Strategies for systemic delivery of siRNA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ivanka Toudjarska and Antonin de Fougerolles are at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,

    Ivanka Toudjarska & Antonin de Fougerolles

Authors
  1. Ivanka Toudjarska
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  2. Antonin de Fougerolles
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Antonin de Fougerolles.

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Competing interests

A.D.F. and I.T. are employees of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a company engaged in the development of RNAi therapeutics.

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Toudjarska, I., de Fougerolles, A. Silencing prostate cancer. Nat Biotechnol 27, 821–823 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0909-821

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