Schistosoma japonicum (S. japonicum) is an extremely harmful pathogen, which infects humans and causes severe public health problems. To date, no effective therapeutic drugs for this pathogen are available. In this study, we designed and constructed three hammerhead ribozymes targeting the eggshell protein gene of S. japonicum (SjESG). The cleavage activities of these three ribozymes were determined using cleavage experiments. The in vitro cleavage results showed that among the three synthesized ribozymes (Rz1, Rz2 and Rz3), Rz1 and Rz3 cleaved...