There have been various research projects that experimented with shRNA/miRNA/siRNA to specifically silence/knockdown NaV1.7 voltage gated sodium channels in small animals like rats & guinea pigs. (Example; my previous question: Is HSV-vector-mediated miRNA expression in dorsal root ganglia stable?
But I can't find any that's been done for humans... So I think it means scientists have not gotten to that stage (if they are interested in doing so), and I was wondering,
- technically, how difficult do you think it is to make a shRNA/miRNA/siRNA that can silence/knockdown NaV1.7 in humans, given that they already know how to make it for NaV1.7 in small animals?
- financially, how much money is needed to invent such a thing (and how hard to get a grant for it?)
- if technically not too difficult, and not very expensive to invent just a sample, is this something not necessarily a professional researcher, but a student could try making as their research project?