Computational analysis of microRNA-mediated antiviral defense in humans.
Recent studies have proposed the interesting perspective that viral gene expression is downregulated by host microRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs well known as post-transcriptional gene regulators. We computationally predicted human miRNA target sites within 228 human-infecting and 348 invertebrate-infecting virus genomes, and we observed that human-infecting viruses were more likely than invertebrate-infecting ones to be targeted by human miRNAs. We listed 62 possible human miRNA-targeted viruses from 6 families, most of which consisted of single-stranded RNA viruses. These results suggest that miRNAs extensively mediate antiviral defenses in humans.
Watanabe
Yuka
Y
Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, Tsuruoka 997-0017, Japan.
Kishi
Atsuko
A
Yachie
Nozomu
N
Kanai
Akio
A
Tomita
Masaru
M
D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000378:metabolism*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D015536:Down-Regulation / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000517:prevention & control*