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. 2017 Jan 17;22(1):139. doi: 10.3390/molecules22010139

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Mechanisms of actions of siRNAs. Long double-stranded RNA (Long ds-RNA) or short hairpin RNA (shRNA) is processed and cleaved into a 20–30 bp double-stranded siRNA (ds-RNA) by RNase Dicer. In cell cytoplasm, the antisense strand of an siRNA binds to the endogenous RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), whereas the sense strand of the siRNA is discarded. The antisense strand guides RISC to recognize target mRNA through base-pair complementary binding. The endonuclease Argonaute 2 (AGO) in the RISC complex enzymatically cleaves the target mRNA, leading to target gene knockdown.