Viruses and RNA interference in mammalian cells

CONCLUSIONS
In the present bachelor’s thesis on the basis of literature:
1. an overview of intracellular antiviral responses are made;
2. RNAi mechanism are described;
3. evidences, that RNA interference in mammalian cells acts as a viral antagonist, are
given;
4. evidences, that mammalian viruses have potent anti-RNAi mechanisms, are collected
and analyzed.
RNAi is established to be an adaptive nucleic acid-based antiviral response. Thorough
investigations on RNAi have been made in plants and insects. Nevertheless, till the recent
time it was debated, whether RNAi acts as an antiviral response in mammalian cells. Some
investigation achievements to support this opinion are described in this bachelor’s thesis.
Recent researches in this field showed that RNAi is a part of antiviral response in
mammalian cells. Viruses are used to exploit RNAi machinery in order to replicate, could be
the first confirmation of this. Second evidence was found to be RSSs, which are encoded by
animal viruses, as counteracting viral elements to RNAi. Hence, the benefits of the fact,
RNAi acts as an antiviral response in mammalian cells, are that RNAi has a potential of an
antiviral treatment or diagnostic tool. Still many aspects and possibilities of this process
remained unknown, but many thorough investigations and clinical trials are yet to come.
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