title: γ-Herpesvirus-encoded miRNAs and their roles in viral biology and pathogenesis.
abstract: To date, more than 200 viral miRNAs have been identified mostly from herpesviruses and this rapidly evolving field has recently been summarized in a number of excellent reviews (see [1,2]). Unique to γ-herpesviruses, like Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus and Epstein-Barr virus, is their ability to cause cancer. Here, we discuss γ-herpesvirus-encoded miRNAs and focus on recent findings which support the hypothesis that viral miRNAs directly contribute to pathogenesis and tumorigenesis. The observations that KSHV mimics a human tumorigenic miRNA (hsa-miR-155), which is induced in EBV-infected cells and required for the survival of EBV-immortalized cells, lead to a number of studies demonstrating that perturbing this pathway induces B cell proliferation in vivo and immortalization of human B cells in vitro. Secondly, the application of state of the art ribonomics methods to globally identify viral miRNA targets in virus-infected tumor cells provides a rich resource to the KSHV and EBV fields and largely expanded our understanding on how viral miRNAs contribute to viral biology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Haecker
authors.forename: Yajie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Shou-Jiang
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Renne
mesh_terms: D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D019288:Herpesvirus 8, Human / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D012367:RNA, Viral