Global gene expression profiling of mouse liver tissue samples after treated with various anti-HCV shRNAs

RNA interference (RNAi) is becoming routine in scientific discovery and treating human disease. However, its applications are hampered by unwanted effects. The RNA-Seq analyses from mouse liver samples expressing various anti-HCV shRNAs show that weak base-pairing in both seed and 3' regions is required to achieve minimal off-targeting effect. Overall design: We created nine shRNAs against the HCV genome, and transfected shRNA-expressing plasmids into mouse liver via a hydrodynamic tail vein infusion. A plasmid backbone lacking the shRNA sequence was used as a negative control. After 7 days, mouse liver RNAs were harvested and subject to RNA-Seq analysis (two biological repeats).