Dicer-substrate RNAs (DsiRNAs) are chemically synthesized 27mer duplex RNAs that have increased potency in RNA interference compared to traditional siRNAs and were developed as a collaborative effort between John Rossi at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope and IDT. Traditional 21mer siRNAs are designed to mimic Dicer products and therefore bypass interaction with the enzyme Dicer. Dicer has been recently shown to be a component of RISC and involved with entry of the siRNA duplex into RISC. Dicer-substrate siRNAs are designed to be optimally processed by Dicer and show increased potency by engaging this natural processing pathway. Using this approach, sustained knockdown has been regularly achieved using sub-nanomolar concentrations. New design rules specific to DsiRNAs have been developed and are available only from IDT.

IDT also offers the TriFECTa^® kit which contains three Dicer-Substrate 27mer duplexes, targeting a specific gene, that are selected from a predesigned set of duplexes from the RefSeq collection of human, mouse, and rat genes in Genbank. For more information, please visit the TriFECTa page.

RNAi is a powerful tool for studying gene silencing and its effects. Advancements to the technology, such as DsiRNAs from IDT, have led to even greater advancements in the potency of RNA interference. These tools will continue to provide the means to study the role specific genes play and the effects of silencing them.