The COVID-19 pandemic has been raging worldwide for more than a year. Many efforts have been made to create vaccines and develop new antiviral drugs to cope with the disease. Here, we propose the application of short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) to degrade the viral genome, thus reducing viral infection. By introducing the concept of the probability of binding efficiency (PBE) and combining the secondary structures of RNA molecules, we designed 11 siRNAs that target the consensus regions of three key viral genes: the spike (S), nucleocapsid (N) and membrane (M) genes of SARS-CoV-2. The silencing efficiencies of the siRNAs were determined in human lung and endothelial cells overexpressing these viral genes. The results suggested that most of the siRNAs could significantly reduce the expression of the viral genes with inhibition rates above 50% in 24 hours. This work not only provides a strategy for designing potentially effective siRNAs against target genes but also validates several potent siRNAs that can be used in the clinical development of preventative medication for COVID-19 in the future.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, siRNA, RNA secondary structure, gene silencing, 【초록키워드】 viral infection, Vaccine, COVID-19 pandemic, antiviral drugs, antiviral drug, RNA, Probability, Region, Viral, nucleocapsid, endothelial cells, human lung, membrane, medication, expression, Target genes, Endothelial cell, secondary structure, viral genome, Efficiency, target gene, 24 hours, secondary structures, Consensus, siRNAs, effort, clinical development, viral genes, RNA molecules, binding efficiency, effective, develop, significantly, the disease, can be used, provide, reducing, suggested, reduce, viral gene, degrade, overexpressing, PBE, 【제목키워드】 Viral, expression, effective, Developing, reduce, viral gene,