Epstein-Barr virus circRNAome as host miRNA sponge regulates virus infection, cell cycle, and oncogenesis

Abstract

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an oncogenic virus that infects more than 90% of the world's population. The proteins and miRNAs encoded by EBV are involved in multiple human malignancies. Recently R-resistance RNA-seq demonstrated that EBV-encoded circular RNAs. The current research aims to explore their functions in EBV-associated malignancies. Total 56 miRNAs were sponged by circRNAome. 24 and 9 in EBV host B and epithelial cells out of 56 miRNAs were detectable by miRNAseq. 18 and 5 miRNAs were down-regulated in both types of host cells, respectively, after EBV infection. The network between five miRNAs and their targets included 1414 genes, 1419 nodes, and 2423 edges. These targets were enriched in multiple categories, and most of them were up-regulated in EBV-infected cells. These data represented the first report that EBV circRNAs could sponge the miRNAs to promote the up-regulated expression of their targets, involving in malignancies associated with EBV.

SARS-CoV-2 may regulate cellular responses through depletion of specific host miRNAs

“…Host miRNAs constitute ~0.01% of total cellular and tissue RNA ( 81 ), while the viral RNA in infected lung cells can reach more than 50% of total cellular RNA ( 13 ). Furthermore, evidence that viral RNA sponges are capable of being efficient in removing host miRNAs is demonstrated in studies on Epstein-Barr virus which illustrates that EBV miRNA sponges regulate virus infection as well as oncogenesis by downregulating a number of target miRNAs ( 85 ). Viral RNA sponge activity has also been reported for Herpes virus ( 15 ) and hepatitis C virus ( 64 ).…”

MiR-187 suppresses non-small-cell lung cancer cell proliferation by targeting FGF9

“…However, the reason why miR-187 inhibits cell proliferation of NSCLC remains to be investigated. Overall, aberrant cell cycle regulation is likely to be an important factor [35]. Indeed, subsequent cell cycle analyses in the present study revealed that A549 and SPC-A-1 cells that were transfected with miR-187 mimic had an evident cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase.…”

The role of circular RNAs in viral infection and related diseases

“…Using a R-resistance RNA-seq, EBV-encoded circRNAs have been investigated. They identified the miRNAs sponged by EBV-encoded circRNAs and their interactions with target mRNAs, which regulate the EBV replication and its related tumorigenesis ( Qiao et al, 2019 ). It has been shown that KSHV infection increased hsa_circ_0001400 expression level in HUVECs cells.…”