Ebola Virus Encodes Two microRNAs in Huh7-Infected Cells

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important gene regulatory molecules involved in a broad range of cellular activities. Although the existence and functions of miRNAs are clearly defined and well established in eukaryotes, this is not always the case for those of viral origin. Indeed, the existence of viral mi...

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Published inInternational journal of molecular sciences Vol. 23; no. 9; p. 5228
Main Authors Diallo, Idrissa, Husseini, Zeinab, Guellal, Sara, Vion, Elodie, Ho, Jeffrey, Kozak, Robert A., Kobinger, Gary P., Provost, Patrick
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland MDPI AG 07.05.2022
MDPI
Subjects
Biosynthesis
Candidates
Ebola virus
Epidemics
Fatalities
Genes
Genomes
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus
Infections
Localization
MicroRNAs
Pathogenesis
Proteins
RNA polymerase
Viral infections
Viruses
Ebola virus
RNA sequencing
microRNAs
viral microRNA
filoviruses
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Summary:MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important gene regulatory molecules involved in a broad range of cellular activities. Although the existence and functions of miRNAs are clearly defined and well established in eukaryotes, this is not always the case for those of viral origin. Indeed, the existence of viral miRNAs is the subject of intense controversy, especially those of RNA viruses. Here, we characterized the miRNA transcriptome of cultured human liver cells infected or not with either of the two Ebola virus (EBOV) variants: Mayinga or Makona; or with Reston virus (RESTV). Bioinformatic analyses revealed the presence of two EBOV-encoded miRNAs, miR-MAY-251 and miR-MAK-403, originating from the EBOV Mayinga and Makona variants, respectively. From the miRDB database, miR-MAY-251 and miR-MAK-403 displayed on average more than 700 potential human host target candidates, 25% of which had a confidence score higher than 80%. By RT-qPCR and dual luciferase assays, we assessed the potential regulatory effect of these two EBOV miRNAs on selected host mRNA targets. Further analysis of Panther pathways unveiled that these two EBOV miRNAs, in addition to general regulatory functions, can potentially target genes involved in the hemorrhagic phenotype, regulation of viral replication and modulation of host immune defense.
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ISSN:1422-0067
1661-6596
1422-0067
DOI:10.3390/ijms23095228