Table 1.

Correlation analysis between silencing efficiency and free energy of interactions in mRNA targets (target secondary structure stability) or shRNA guide strands (intra- or inter-molecular interactions).

	Pearson correlation	Secondary structure and interactions
		Target	Guide strand (intra-)	Guide strand (inter-)
Complete database	R	0.16	0.13	0.12
	Significance	<10−100	1.1 × 10−72	2.89 × 10−56
Dataset with duplex stability −35 ≤ ΔG ≤ −25 kcal/mol	R	–	0.045	–
	Significance	n.s.	0.0018	n.s.

n.s., non-significant correlation (P ≥ 0.05).