Identification of Ebola virus microRNAs and their putative pathological function  

作　　者：LIANG HongWei ZHOU Zhen ZHANG SuYang ZEN Ke CHEN Xi ZHANG ChenYu 

机构地区：[1]Jiangsu Engineering Research Center for microRNA Biology and Biotechnology, State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology,School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University

出　　处：《Science China(Life Sciences)》2014年第10期973-981,共9页中国科学（生命科学英文版）

基　　金：supported by the National Basic Research Program of China(2014CB542300);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(81101330,31271378,81250044);the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province(BK2012014);the Research Special Fund for Public Welfare Industry of Health(201302018);supported by the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University from Ministry of Education of China(NCET-12-0261)

摘　　要：Ebola virus(EBOV),a member of the filovirus family,is an enveloped negative-sense RNA virus that causes lethal infections in humans and primates.Recently,more than 1000 people have been killed by the Ebola virus disease in Africa,yet no specific treatment or diagnostic tests for EBOV are available.In this study,we identified two putative viral microRNA precursors(pre-miRNAs)and three putative mature microRNAs(miRNAs)derived from the EBOV genome.The production of the EBOV miRNAs was further validated in HEK293T cells transfected with a pcDNA6.2-GW/EmGFP-EBOV-pre-miRNA plasmid,indicating that EBOV miRNAs can be produced through the cellular miRNA processing machinery.We also predicted the potential target genes of these EBOV miRNAs and their possible biological functions.Overall,this study reports for the first time that EBOV may produce miRNAs,which could serve as non-invasive biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of EBOV infection and as therapeutic targets for Ebola viral infection treatment.Ebola virus （EBOV）, a member of the filovirus family, is an enveloped negative-sense RNA virus that causes lethal infections in humans and primates. Recently, more than 1000 people have been killed by the Ebola virus disease in Africa, yet no specific treatment or diagnostic tests for EBOV are available. In this study, we identified two putative viral microRNA precursors （pre-miRNAs） and three putative mature microRNAs （miRNAs） derived from the EBOV genome. The production of the EBOV miRNAs was further validated in HEK293T cells transfected with a pcDNA6.2-GW/EmGFP-EBOV-pre-miRNA plasmid, indicating that EBOV miRNAs can be produced through the cellular miRNA processing machinery. We also predicted the potential target genes of these EBOV miRNAs and their possible biological functions. Overall, this study reports for the first time that EBOV may produce miRNAs, which could serve as non-invasive biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of EBOV infection and as therapeutic targets for Ebola viral infection treatment.

关 键 词：MICRORNA Ebola virus FUNCTION 

分 类 号：R373.3[医药卫生—病原生物学]