AMSBIO: Lentivirus for miRNA Expression and Inhibition

AMSBIO has introduced a range of ready-to-use human and mouse lentivirus products for miRNA and anti-miRNA expression (miRNA inhibition). Lentiviral expression vectors are the most effective vehicles for delivering genetic material to almost any mammalian cell — including non-dividing cells and whole model organisms.

miRNAs are endogenous non-coding RNAs that are highly conserved in mammals and that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally through innate RNA interference mechanisms. As key players in the fine-tuning of biological networks, miRNAs offer significant diagnostic and prognostic potential as biomarkers not only of fundamental cellular physiology but also of disease etiology and progression.

To study long-term miRNA-induced phenotypes, AMSBIO has developed a range of ready-to-use products for stable expression of the mature miRNA. There are more than 2000 mature miRNA discovered in human and more than 1200 miRNA in mouse so far. miRNA mainly silence or repress gene expression via binding to the complementary sequences of gene coding mRNA. Each miRNA can target multiple genes. It is believed than greater than 60% of mammalian gene expression is regulated by miRNAs, and miRNAs are involved in most biological processes, including a variety of diseases or disorders development.

AMSBIO's range of ready-to-use, anti-miRNA lentivirus (miRNA inhibitors) are produced from the optimally designed anti miRNA lentivectors. The annealed DNA oligonucleotides hairpin duplex encoding the antisense of a specific miRNA sequence are cloned under a constitutive human U6 promoter or under an optional inducible human H1 promoter. AMSBIO’s anti-miRNA lentivector was carefully designed for highest anti-miRNA expression level with precise promoter transcription position, and to favor the antisense strand for RISC complex processing.

Anti-miRNA or miRNA inhibitors are short RNA molecules complementary to the mature miRNA sequence. Anti miRNA specifically binds to endogenous miRNA and it inhibits or down-regulates miRNA activity. Therefore, anti-miRNA is a great tool for the loss of function research of any specific miRNAs. miRNA inhibitors also show potential as therapeutic agents for some biological malfunctions.