RNA activation (RNAa) is a small RNA-guided and Argonaute-dependent gene regulation phenomenon in which promoter-targeted short double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) induce target gene expression at the transcriptional/epigenetic level. RNAa was first reported in a 2006 PNAS paper by Li et al. who also coined the term "RNAa" as a contrast to RNA interference (RNAi) to describe such gene activation phenomenon. Soon after, several groups made similar observation in different mammalian species including human, non-human primates, rat and mice, suggesting that RNAa is a general gene regulation mechanism conserved at least in mammals. In these studies, upregulation of gene expression is achieved by targeting selected promoter regions using either synthetic 21-nucleotide dsRNAs or vector expressed small hairpin RNAs (shRNAs). Such promoter targeted dsRNAs have been termed antigene RNA (agRNAs) or small activating RNA (saRNA).