Patent ID: 8603991

Claim:
A method for treating cancer, which comprises: (a) obtaining a specimen of cancer tissue and normal tissue from a patient; (b) extracting total protein from the cancer tissue and normal tissue; (c) obtaining a protein expression profile of the cancer tissue and normal tissue; (d) identifying one or more over-expressed proteins in the cancer tissue, wherein a protein is considered to be over-expressed if the protein is found in the cancer tissue at higher levels than in the normal tissue; (e) identifying at least one prioritized protein from the one or more over-expressed proteins, wherein the prioritized protein is translated from an mRNA molecule that will serve as a target for an RNA interference molecule; (f) designing an RNA interference expression cassette to modulate the expression of at least one gene that encodes the mRNA molecule from which said prioritized protein is translated, wherein the RNA interference expression cassette encodes one or more RNA interference molecules that, individually or collectively, include: (i) a shRNA that comprises a first sequence that is about 19-24 nucleotides in length and is 100% complementary to a target sequence within the mRNA molecule wherein the first sequence comprises a cleavage dependent oligonucleotide that is cleavage dependent at a RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) complex; and (ii) wherein the shRNA further comprises a second sequence that is about 19-24 nucleotides in length and includes thermodynamically favorable interspersed mis-matches which are not complementary to corresponding nucleotides in the target sequence within the mRNA molecule, with all remaining nucleotides in the second sequence being 100% complementary to the target sequence wherein the second sequence comprises a cleavage independent oligonucleotide that is cleavage independent at the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) complex; wherein the first sequence and the second sequence are located on the same RNA interference expression cassette; (g) incorporating said cassette into a delivery vehicle; and (h) providing a patient with an effective amount of the delivery vehicle.