• Title/Summary/Keyword: Ribozyme

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Characterization in Terms of the NUX Rule of G-inserted Mutant Hammerhead Ribozymes with High Level of Catalytic Power

  • Kuwabara, Tomoko;Warashina, Masaki;Kato, Yoshio;Kawasaki, Hiroaki;Taira, Kazunari
    • BMB Reports
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    • v.34 no.1
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    • pp.51-58
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    • 2001

  • Attempts using in vitro and in vivo selection procedures have been made to search for hammerhead ribozymes that have higher activities than the wild-type ribozyme and also to determine whether other sequences might be possible in the catalytic core of the hammerhead ribozyme. Active sequences selected in the past conformed broadly to the consensus core sequence except at A9, and no sequences were associated with higher activity than that of the hammerhead with the consensus core, an indication that the consensus sequence derived from viruses and virusoids is probably the optimal sequence [Vaish et al. (1997) Biochemistry 36, 6495-6501]. Recently, during construction of ribozyme expression vectors, we isolated a mutant hammerhead ribozyme, with an insertion of G between A9 and G10.1, that appeared to show significant activity [Kawasaki et al. (1996) Nucleic Acids Res. 24, 3010-3016; Kawasaki et al. (1998) Nature 393, 284-289]. We, therefore, characterized kinetic properties of the G-inserted mutant ribozymes in terms of the NUX rule. We demonstrate that the NUX rule is basically applicable to the G-inserted ribozymes and, more importantly, one type of G-inserted ribozyme was very active with $k_{cat}$, value of $6.4\;min^{-1}$ in 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0) and 10 mM $MgCl_2$ at $37^{\circ}C$.

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RNA Mapping of Mutant Myotonic Dystrophy Protein Kinase 3'-Untranslated Region Transcripts

  • Song, Min-Sun;Lee, Seong-Wook
    • Genomics & Informatics
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    • v.7 no.4
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    • pp.181-186
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    • 2009

  • Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), which is a dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disorder, results from a CTG trinucleotide repeat expansion in the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of the myotonic dystrophy protein kinase (DMPK) gene. Retention of mutant DMPK (mDMPK) transcripts in the nuclei of affected cells has been known to be the main cause of pathogenesis of the disease. Thus, reducing the RNA toxicity through elimination of the mutant RNA has been suggested as one therapeutic strategy against DM1. In this study, we suggested RNA replacement with a trans -splicing ribozyme as an alternate genetic therapeutic approach for amelioration of DM1. To this end, we identified the regions of mDMPK 3'-UTR RNA that were accessible to ribozymes by using an RNA mapping strategy based on a trans-splicing ribozyme library. We found that particularly accessible sites were present not only upstream but also downstream of the expanded repeat sequence. Repair or replacement of the mDMPK transcript with the specific ribozyme will be useful for DM1 treatment through reduction of toxic mutant transcripts and simultaneously restore wild-type DMPK or release nucleus-entrapped mDMPK transcripts to the cytoplasm.

  • https://doi.org/10.5808/GI.2009.7.4.181 인용 PDF KSCI

Functional Modification of a Specific RNA with Targeted Trans-Splicing

  • Park, Young-Hee;Kim, Sung-Chun;Kwon, Byung-Su;Jung, Heung-Su;Kim, Kuchan;Lee, Seong-Wook
    • Genomics & Informatics
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.45-52
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    • 2004

  • The self-splicing group I intron from Tetrahymena thermophila has been demonstrated to perform splicing reaction with its substrate RNA in the trans configuration. In this study, we explored the potential use of the trans-splicing group I ribozymes to replace a specific RNA with a new RNA that exerts any new function we want to introduce. We have chosen thymidine phosphorylase (TP) RNA as a target RNA that is known as a valid cancer prognostic factor. Cancer-specific expression of TP RNA was first evaluated with RT-PCR analysis of RNA from patients with gastric cancer. We determined next which regions of the TP RNA are accessible to ribozymes by employing an RNA mapping strategy, and found that the leader sequences upstream of the AUG start codon appeared to be particularly accessible. A specific ribozyme recognizing the most accessible sequence in the TP RNA with firefly luciferase transcript as a 3' exon was then developed. The specific trans-splicing ribozyme transferred an intended 3' exon tag sequence onto the targeted TP transcripts, resulting in a more than two fold induction of the reporter activity in the presence of TP RNA in mammalian cells, compared to the absence of the target RNA. These results suggest that the Tetrahymena ribozyme can be a potent anti-cancer agent to modify TP RNAs in tumors with a new RNA harboring anti-cancer activity.

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Comparative Analysis of Intracellular Trans-Splicing Ribozyme Activity Against Hepatitis C Virus Internal Ribosome Entry Site

  • Ryu Kyung-Ju;Lee Seong-Wook
    • Journal of Microbiology
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    • v.42 no.4
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    • pp.361-364
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    • 2004

  • Internal ribosome entry site (IRES) of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is known to be essential for HCV replication and most conserved among HCV variants. Hence, IRES RNA is a good therapeutic target for RNA-based inhibitors, such as ribozymes. We previously proposed a new anti-HCV modulation strategy based on trans-splicing ribozymes, which can selectively replace HCV transcripts with a new RNA that exerts anti-HCV activity. To explore this procedure, sites which are accessible to ribozymes in HCV IRES were previously determined by employing an RNA mapping method in vitro. In this study, we evaluate the intracellular accessibility of the ribozymes by comparing the trans-splicing activ­ities in cells of several ribozymes targeting different sites of the HCV IRES RNA. We assessed the intra­cellular activities of the ribozymes by monitoring their target-specific induction degree of both reporter gene activity and cytotoxin expression. The ribozyme capable of targeting the most accessible site iden­tified by the mapping studies then harbored the most active trans-splicing activity in cells. These results suggest that the target sites predicted to be accessible are truly the most accessible in the cells, and thus, could be applied to the development of various RNA-based anti-HCV therapies.

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