Cloning Of C-myc-specific Ribozyme And Construction Of Its Eukaryotic Expression Vector And Its Inhibiting Effect On Malignant Proliferation Of Hepatoma Cells

Ribozymes are unique RNA molecules with enzymatic activity ,possessing the ability to cleave targeted RNA substrates site-specifically. It has been identified that ribozymes are effective modulators of gene expression, such as activated oncogene or foreign virus gene. As a new type of catalytic RNA-inhibiting molecules, and different from antisense RNA, ribozyme possesses the feature of both blocking and cleaving RNA . More important, ribozyme can repeat the function of cleavage reaction, which means one molecule can destroy many targeted RNA substrates. Once the target has been cleaved , the ribozyme can dissociate from the cleaved products and repeat the cycle of binding ,cleavage and dissociation. The study showed that ribozymes are more resistant to attack by nuclease than single strand antisense RNA molecule for the reason of stable secondary structure. Their simple structure and feature of being easily designed make it possible to provide a new and specific way of gene therapy applicable to human cancer.