Activities of functional RNA molecules containing unnatural bases in cultured cells

通过利用我们的非自然碱基对系统进行体外转录，我们制备了在特定位置含有一系列非自然碱基的shRNA分子，并评估了它们在培养细胞中的RNAi活性。我们发现，通过在shRNA分子的客运链和引导链内的某些特定位置替换非天然碱基来保留活性，并且非天然碱基替换的耐受性取决于非天然碱基的大小。

By using in vitro transcription with our unnatural base pair systems, we prepared shRNA molecules containing a series of unnatural bases at a specific position and evaluated their RNAi activities in cultured cells. We found that the activity was retained by replacement with unnatural bases in some specific positions within the passenger and guide strands of the shRNA molecules, and that the tolerance by unnatural-base replacements depended on the size of the unnatural base.