Induction of methylation to CpG sequences by dsRNA in mammalian cells

摘要

The present inventors specifically induce methylation of CpG in or near a target region in a human cell by a synthetic short interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting a region containing a CpG island on a gene promoter. It revealed that. Promoter methylation represses the expression of genes encoded downstream thereof at the transcriptional level. The present invention provides a method for inducing DNA methylation using siRNA and a method for suppressing gene expression through promoter methylation by siRNA. Moreover, the DNA methylation inducer or gene expression inhibitor containing this siRNA or the vector which expresses siRNA or dsRNA is provided.