Abstract: Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. Antigen-presenting cells process antigens, form a molecular complex with its own major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecule, and present the complex to immune T cells. Type 1 diabetes, as in other autoimmune diseases may have MHC molecules that turn in self tissue components as the target for immune attack. Gene therapy is being explored to replace the self-inflicting MHC with one from a healthy donor. ... Read more

Since it was reported last year that double stranded RNA (dsRNA) could silence the expression of a specific gene by digesting the mRNA (1), it has been further revealed that small interfering RNA (siRNA) mediated RNA interference (RNAi) is a process conserved among plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates. RNAi has become a powerful tool for genetic analysis and gene silencing. In order to apply RNAi to mammalian systems, transfection of either synthetic oligonucleotides or plasmids has been a popular methodology. However, the technique is limited to specific cell lines and is nearly impossible in primary cells. Due to their small size ... Read more