Fig. 1

Mechanisms of post-transcriptional gene suppression. a Ribozymes act in the cytoplasm where they hybridise complementary mature mRNA sequences and induce catalytic cleavage. b ASOs bind to complementary mRNA targets, leading to RNAse H1-induced mRNA cleavage. They are able to target both pre-mRNA in the nucleus and mature mRNA in the cytoplasm. c RNAi occurs in the cytoplasm and leads to the degradation of mature mRNA via a complex and highly regulated process. ASO: anti-sense oligonucleotide, AS-siRNA: antisense short interfering RNA, RISC: RNA-induced silencing complex, RNAi: RNA interference (Reproduced from Godinho et al. [9] with permission from Elsevier)