RNA interference-based therapeutics for shrimp viral diseases.

The article presents a study centered on ribonucleic acid (RNA) interference (RNAi) as a tool to control gene expression in the laboratory. It notes that a post-transcriptional gene-silencing mechanism can surface due to the presence of a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) in eukaryotic cells, leading to a sequence-specific degradation of the target messenger RNA (mRNA). Silencing of viral genes is recommended as a therapeutic strategy, while marine shrimp viral diseases, particularly white spot disease (WSD), are regarded as the most attractive targets for the development of therapeutic RNAi due to its widespread economic impact. The author concluded that the cycle of pathogen must be considered when designing the RNAi-based therapy.