siRNA as a conventional drug in the clinic? Challenges and current technologies

RNA interference (RNAi) has shown immense potential for treating diseases by selectively silencing an abnormal/pathological pathway through the degradation of target messenger RNA (mRNA). However, exploitation of RNAi as a prevalent drug in the clinic has been hampered by the inability to successfully deliver siRNA to cells with adequate pharmacokinetics, while avoiding side effects. This review examines the current technologies to circumvent multiple challenges for siRNA-based therapeutics to be established as a conventional and effective class of medicine.