Herpesviruses and MicroRNAs: New Pathogenesis Factors in Oral Infection and Disease?

Abstract

The oral cavity incessantly encounters a plethora of microorganisms. Effective and efficient oral innate and adaptive immune responses are incumbent to maintain healthy mucosa. A higher prevalence of Human Herpesviruses (HHV), a family of large enveloped DNA viruses, has been reported in multiple oral inflammatory diseases suggesting their involvement in disease progression. However, the viral components contributing to oral disease remain obscure. MicroRNAs (miRNA) are non-protein coding, single stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules that post-transcriptionally regulate diverse messenger RNAs. Thus, miRNAs can control large repertoire of biological processes. Changes in miRNA expression are associated with various oral infections and diseases. Cellular miRNAs can act as pro- or anti-viral factors and dysregulation of host miRNA expression occurs during herpesviruses infection. This strongly suggest a critical role of cellular miRNAs in host-herpesvirus interaction. Interestingly, HHV also encode multiple miRNAs (called viral miRNAs) that may play key role in host-pathogen interaction by modulating both host biological pathways and controlling viral life cycle. Recent studies from our laboratory have identified viral miRNAs (v-miRs) in diseased oral tissue biopsies and demonstrate their immunomodulatory roles. This review discusses the association of miRNAs (both host and viral) and herpesviruses in the pathogenesis of oral inflammatory diseases.

The role of extracellular vesicles in COVID-19 virus infection

“…The viral glycoprotein B downregulates the expression of HLA-DR molecules at the plasma membrane of infected cells by diverting these molecules into the exosomes (Temme et al, 2010). Furthermore, EVs from HSV-1 infected cells have viral miRNAs, which are involved in latency regulation (Naqvi et al, 2018). Han et al found that viral miRNAs like miR-H28 and miR-H29 are encapsulated into EVs from the HSV-1 infected cells.…”

Extracellular Vesicles in Viral Infections of the Nervous System

“…The highly complex HSV-1 genome encodes several mature miRNA sequences [ 164 ]. These HSV-1 derived miRNAs are thought to be involved in repressing the expression of target genes critical for the regulation of viral latency [ 164 , 165 ].…”

“…The highly complex HSV-1 genome encodes several mature miRNA sequences [ 164 ]. These HSV-1 derived miRNAs are thought to be involved in repressing the expression of target genes critical for the regulation of viral latency [ 164 , 165 ]. Interestingly, EVs from HSV-1 infected cells have also been shown to contain both viral mRNA and miRNA such as miR-H28 and miR-H29 [ 51 , 166 ].…”

Polymicrobial periodontal disease triggers a wide radius of effect and unique virome

“…Although viruses are also present within the oral cavity with differences observed between health and disease states, there is limited knowledge about their relationship to periodontal disease 20 . Studies suggest that viruses, including herpes simplex virus-1,2, Epstein-Barr virus, and cytomegalovirus play important roles in periodontal disease [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] . Also, in recent studies, other different viruses have been associated with periodontal disease, however, a comprehensive evaluation of the oral virome in relationship to periodontal disease using shotgun sequencing has not been carried out in mice and to a limited extent in humans [30][31][32][33] .…”