MicroRNAs are short non-coding RNAs that can regulate gene expression in cancer development, which makes them valuable targets for therapeutic intervention. Here we report on an approach that can not only arrest the functions of mature miRNAs by binding to them but it can also induce the “mis-processing” of the target miRNA producing a non-functional truncated miRNA. This approach involves generating an expression construct that produces a RNA fragment with sixteen repeat sequences. The construct is named miR-Pirate or microRNA-interacting RNA—producing imperfect RNA and tangling endogenous miRNA. The transcript of the construct contained mismatches to the seed region, and thus it would not target the potential targets of the miRNA under study. The homology of the cons...

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http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=6808391&cid=c_449_60_f&fid=37615&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.biochemj.org%2Fbj%2Fimps%2Frefer.htm%3FMSID%3DBJ20120722