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

Abstract

Cold viruses have generally been considered fairly innocuous until the appearance of the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 2019 which caused the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic. Two previous viruses foreshadowed that a coronavirus could potentially have devastating consequences in 2002 (severe acute respiratory coronavirus (SARS-CoV)) and in 2012 (middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)). The question that arises is why these viruses are so different from the relatively harmless cold viruses. Based on an analysis of the current literature and using bioinformatic approaches, we examined the potential human miRNA interactions with the SARS-CoV-2's genome, and compared the miRNA target sites in seven coronavirus genomes that include SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and four non-pathogenic coronaviruses. Here, we discuss the possibility that pathogenic HCoVs including SARS-CoV-2 could modulate host miRNA levels by acting as miRNA sponges to facilitate viral replication and/or to avoid immune responses.

Conserved Genomic Terminals of SARS-CoV-2 as Coevolving Functional Elements and Potential Therapeutic Targets

“…We identified distinct viral clades sharing coevolving sequence variants and explored emergence and global spread by continent and collection time. We identified possible interactions of the human microRNA miR-1307-3p with the noncoding 39-UTR of the SARS-CoV-2 genome supported by in silico predictions from this study, new analyses from other groups (38,39), and extensive functional assays that supported a biological role for miR-1307-3p in H1N1 influenza A virus replication (40). Above all, because of the challenges of canonical and noncanonical properties of miRNA binding to targets, we note that important next steps are functional experiments, such as miRNA-virus biochemical interaction assays, mutational analysis, and miRNA overexpression assays to further investigate the biological significance of miR-1307 in vitro and in vivo during SARS-CoV-2 replication and possibly the regulation of host immune responses.…”

Brain Disease Network Analysis to Elucidate the Neurological Manifestations of COVID-19

“…Interestingly, many of the miRNAs identified in this study (e.g., miR-130a-3p, miR-29b-3p, miR-27a-3p, miR-145-5p, and miR-200a-3p) are found to be unique to the SARS-CoV-2 genome according to the results of the Fulzele et al [ 78 ]. Moreover, miRNAs including miR-34a-5p, miR-200a-3p, and let-7a-5p have been shown to strongly interact with the SARS-CoV-2 [ 79 ]. Besides, polyphenols are also considered as a potential and valuable natural compound for designing new drugs that could be used effectively in the combat against COVID-19 [ 80 – 82 ].…”

Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Carrying miRNA as a Potential Multi Target Therapy to COVID-19: an In Silico Analysis

“…MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small ncRNAs that can be found within MSC-derived EVs and are associated with post-transcriptional gene repression or degradation [ 48 ]. Growing evidence shows that miRNAs could alleviate antiviral responses [ 49 ] since a single miRNA could target multiple genes. Functionally, miRNAs guides proteins of the Argonaute family to form a silencing complex through base pairing between the 5′ portion of miRNA “seed sequence” (miRNA nucleotides 2–7/8) and complementary sites within the coding sequence (CDs), 3′ or 5′ untranslated regions (UTRs) of target RNAs [ 50 ].…”