The enzyme RNase cuts RNA randomly into small pieces, very efficiently and within minutes. RNase is also present everywhere, making the preparation of RNA for nano applications extremely difficult. Peixuan Guo, University of Cincinnati, USA, and co-workers have described a way to make stable RNA nanoparticles resistant to RNase digestion.

2′-Deoxy-2′-fluoro (2’-F) modification of the RNA was performed by in vitro transcription with Y639F mutant T7 RNA polymerase in the presence of 2′-modified pyrimidine. The modified RNA was shown to be stable between pH 4 and 10 and resistant to degradation by RNase A or other degradation enzymes in fetal bovine serum. The 2′-F RNA retained its property for correct folding in dimer formation, appropriate structure in procapsid binding, and biological activity in gearing the phi29 nanomotor to package viral DNA and producing infectious viral particles.

• Fabrication of Stable and RNase-Resistant RNA Nanoparticles Active in Gearing the Nanomotors for Viral DNA Packaging
  J. Liu, S. Guo, M. Cinier, L. S. Shlyakhtenko, Y. Shu, C. Chen, G. Shen, P. Guo,
  ACS Nano 2011.
  DOI: 10.1021/nn1024658