ABSTRACT
In 2004, Guo’s group reported the systematic formation of pRNA nanoparticles using two technologies: hand-in-hand interactions and palindrome-sequence-mediated self-annealing (Figures 2.1a-c, 2.2b, 2.2c, and 2.3) (Shu et al., 2004). In the succeeding years, through a series
of papers, they showed that pRNA molecules could be conjugated with various therapeutic functionalities, including aptamers, small interfering RNA (siRNA), ribozymes, and microRNA (miRNA) (Hoeprich et al., 2003; Guo et al., 2005; Khaled et al., 2005; Guo et al., 2006; Shu et al., 2009; Abdelmawla et al., 2011; Ye et al., 2011; Shu et al., 2011a; Shu et al., 2011b; Shu et al., 2011c; Zhang et al., 2009) (Figures 2.2a-d and 2.4). These findings have paved the way for RNA nanotechnology to develop into a novel area of therapeutics for the treatment of various diseases such as cancer, viral infections, and genetic diseases.
