title: Computational analysis of microRNA-mediated antiviral defense in humans.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, Tsuruoka 997-0017, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Atsuko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kishi
authors.forename: Nozomu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yachie
authors.forename: Akio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kanai
authors.forename: Masaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tomita
mesh_terms: 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*