Designing of Antiviral Sirna for Targeting HIV-1 Subtype C in India

Abstract
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is one of the top deadly diseases in the world. The recent studies confirm that neither behavioral therapies nor current antiretroviral drugs are likely to cure HIV infection completely. RNA interference (RNAi) has raised the possibility of developing a new generation of strategies that can prevent HIV-1 replication. Since HIV has high mutation rate, RNAican be made effective only by targeting highly conserved coding regions with optimal stable siRNAs. This study was mainly focused on the identification of highly conserved target sites and designing of stable antiviral siRNAs against HIV-1 subtype C in India. Here, the mutations in HIV-1 subtype C in India were studied using the tool HIVseq. The evolutionary pathway of HIV-1 subtype C in India was inferred through phylogenetic analysis using MEGA4 in the present study. Based on the mutational and phylogenetic studies, the highly conserved target sites were identified using BioEdit. Stable, optimal siRNAs were designed against these conserved target sites using siRNA selection server at Whitehead Institute. siRNAs designed against these conserved target sites were anticipated to resist viral mutational escape and off-target gene silencing. These optimal siRNAs would increase the durability of RNAi against HIV-1 subtype C.
Description
TNV_BM_5(10)_Oct2014_78-88
Keywords
Veterinary Science, Bioinformatics Centre & ARIS Cell
Citation