miRCURY LNA™ family inhibitors are specifically designed to silence entire families of microRNAs rather than individual family members. By careful design we have developed special family inhibitors that knockdown all family members, while retaining specificity for the targeted family.
We have achieved this by:
- Sequence optimization. Identification of a target sequence sufficiently short to be shared by family members and sufficiently long to define the family.
- Mixed base synthesis. When target sequences differ at a single position, we use a mixture of two bases at the corresponding position during the synthesis of the antisense oligonucleotide. This way we can generate two oligonucleotides in a single oligonucleotide synthesis reaction.
- Mixture of inhibitors. When it is not possible to target a whole family using a single nucleotide synthesis, we provide a mixture of two or more inhibitors that make up the family inhibitor.
- LNA™-optimization. Family inhibitors are short (10-16mers), but enhanced LNA™ content ensures that they have the same target affinity (Tm) as our individual miRCURY LNA™ microRNA inhibitors.
We provide both regular microRNA family inhibitors and Power family inhibitors with phosphorothioate backbone for enhanced stability and potency*.
Coverage
We have developed inhibitors for more than 40 human microRNA families that are conserved in mouse. Family Inhibitors have been designed only for microRNA families where the above mentioned design criteria represented an advantage over simply making a cocktail of individual inhibitors of all microRNA family members.
We define microRNA families as highly related microRNAs that share an identical seed sequence (nucleotides 2-8) which is particularly important for target recognition (the miR-200 family is one of the few exceptions to the rule).
Downoad a list of the available microRNA family inhibitorsCertain very large miRBase defined microRNA families (such as the hsa-miR-506, hsa-miR-515 and hsa-miR-548 families) comprise microRNAs with similar sequences, but with different seeds. These families are not represented among our list of family inhibitors.
Discover unknown microRNA function with family inhibitors
MicroRNA family members are often co-expressed either from the same pri-miR transcript or from distinct but co-regulated loci. This suggests that microRNAs within a family may share a common regulatory function. Given their identical seed sequence microRNA family members will have many mRNA targets in common and they are therefore likely to be functionally redundant. Analysis of microRNA family function therefore requires simultaneous inhibition of all or several family members. With our new miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Family Inhibitors, you now have an opportunity to observe robust phenotypes that were either absent or weakly presented when inhibitors of individual microRNA family members were used. MicroRNA family inhibitors will allow you to discover new unknown microRNA functions that you perhaps have deduced by careful analysis of microRNA target predictions, but so far failed to prove experimentally.
*Note: Power Inhibitors are not recommended for use with cells or cell lines derived from muscle or the central nervous system (CNS). These cell types are known to be particularly sensitive to sequence-dependent toxicity of phosphorothioate-modified oligonucleotides.