Patent ID: 8299044

Claim:
A method for inducing apoptosis of cancer cells comprising the steps of: (a) administering a double-stranded RNA that has RNAi activity toward a RecQ1 gene and suppresses the expression of the RecQ1 gene into a subject; and (b) assessing the viability of the subject; wherein the double stranded RNA induces apoptosis in cancer cells but does not induce apoptosis in normal cells, and comprises a sense RNA comprising a sequence homologous to an arbitrary 20 to 30 consecutive nucleotides from the mRNA of the RecQ1 gene, and an antisense RNA, comprising the sequence complementary to the sense RNA; and wherein either strand of the double-stranded RNA with RNAi activity comprises the nucleotide sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 1, 31 to 34, and 43 to 52.