Researchers at the Emory University School of Medicine have discovered that fluoroquinolone antibiotics can make RNAi more effective in the laboratory and reduce potential side effects. The most powerful enhancer of RNAi was enoxacin, which has been used to treat gonorrhea and urinary tract infections. This group of compounds also includes the widely used antibiotic ciprofloxacin. The antibiotics' effect on RNAi appears to be chemically separate from their bacteria-killing activities.
During this week's GEN podcast, Dr. Jin talks about the role of RNAi as a research tool and its potential to treat a variety of diseases. He describes the experiments that led to the team's conclusions about antibiotics and RNAi and discusses the reasons why fluroquinolones are such effective therapeutics. He also reveals what makes enoxacin so useful in relation to RNAi.
Dr. Jin notes that significant barriers still prevent RNAi from working well in people and provides details on the research efforts aimed at overcoming these barriers.