Si-Kun Guo, Chu-Xiao Liu, Yi-Feng Xu, Xiao Wang, Fang Nan, Youkui Huang, Siqi Li, Shan Nan, Ling Li, Edo Kon, Chen Li, Meng-Yuan Wei, Rina Su, Jia Wei, Shiguang Peng, Nitay Ad-El, Jiaquan Liu, Dan Peer, Ting Chen, Li Yang, Ling-Ling Chen
Efforts to advance RNA aptamers as a new therapeutic modality have been limited by their susceptibility to degradation and immunogenicity. In a previous study, we demonstrated synthesized short double-stranded region-containing circular RNAs (ds-cRNAs) with minimal immunogenicity targeted to dsRNA-activated protein kinase R (PKR). Here we test the therapeutic potential of ds-cRNAs in a mouse model of imiquimod-induced psoriasis. We find that genetic supplementation of ds-cRNAs leads to inhibition of PKR, resulting in alleviation of downstream interferon-α and dsRNA signals and attenuation of psoriasis phenotypes...
April 23, 2024: Nature Biotechnology