microRNAs and Inflammatory Immune Response in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Narrative Review

• Published in: Life (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 12; no. 2; p. 288
• Main Authors: Maranini, Beatrice, Ciancio, Giovanni, Ferracin, Manuela, Cultrera, Rosario, Negrini, Massimo, Sabbioni, Silvia, Govoni, Marcello
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 15.02.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Apoptosis; Binding sites; Bioinformatics; Biomarkers; Chemokines; Complications; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Crosstalk; Cytokine storm; Cytokines; Diabetes; Disease; Gene expression; Genomes; Hypertension; Immune response; Immune system; Infections; Infectious diseases; Inflammation; inflammatory response; lncRNAs; MicroRNAs; miRNA; miRNAs; ncRNAs; Non-coding RNA; Pandemics; Proteins; Public health; Review; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Tumor necrosis factor-TNF; Viral diseases; Viral infections; Viruses; COVID-19; lncRNAs; SARS-CoV-2; cytokine storm; miRNAs; immune response; inflammatory response; ncRNAs
• ISSN: 2075-1729; 2075-1729
• DOI: 10.3390/life12020288

The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has emerged as an international challenge with strong medical and socioeconomic impact. The spectrum of clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 is wide, covering asymptomatic or mild cases up to severe and life-threatening complications. Critical courses of SARS-CoV-2 infection are thought to be driven by the so-called "cytokine storm", derived from an excessive immune response that induces the release of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines. In recent years, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) emerged as potential diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers in both inflammatory and infectious diseases. Therefore, the identification of SARS-CoV-2 miRNAs and host miRNAs is an important research topic, investigating the host-virus crosstalk in COVID-19 infection, trying to answer the pressing question of whether miRNA-based therapeutics can be employed to tackle SARS-CoV-2 complications. In this review, we aimed to directly address ncRNA role in SARS-CoV-2-immune system crosstalk upon COVID-19 infection, particularly focusing on inflammatory pathways and cytokine storm syndromes.