Patent ID: 8546143

Claim:
A double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) for inhibiting the expression of a target gene in a cell, comprising a complementary RNA strand and a sense RNA strand, wherein the sense RNA strand comprises a nucleotide sequence which is substantially identical to the corresponding part of the target gene, wherein the complementary RNA strand comprises a complementary nucleotide sequence which is complementary to an mRNA transcript formed during expression of the target gene, wherein the complementary strand specifically hybridizes with the mRNA transcript, wherein the complementary RNA strand comprises a 3′-end and a 5′-end, wherein the 3′-end has a nucleotide overhang of 1 to 4 nucleotides and wherein the dsRNA at the 5′-end of the complementary RNA strand is blunt, and wherein the dsRNA is 20 to less than 25 base pairs in length and wherein the two RNA strands of the dsRNA are separate and non-linked.