Efficient inhibition of human immunodeficiency virus replication using novel modified microRNA-30a targeting 3'-untranslated region transcripts

HIV UTR, LTR, and Epigenetic Immunity

The duel between humans and viruses is unending. In this review, we examine the HIV RNA in the form of un-translated terminal region (UTR), the viral DNA in the form of long terminal repeat (LTR), and the immunity of human DNA in a format of epigenetic regulation. We explore the ways in which the human immune responses to invading pathogenic viral nucleic acids can inhibit HIV infection, exemplified by a chromatin vaccine (cVaccine) to elicit the immunity of our genome—epigenetic immunity towards a cure.

A bioinformatics approach to investigate serum and hematopoietic cell-specific therapeutic microRNAs targeting the 3' UTRs of all four Dengue virus serotypes

Hyperendemic circulation of all four Dengue virus (DENV) serotypes is a severe global public health problem, so any vaccine or therapeutics should be able to target all four of them. Cells of hemopoietic origin are believed to be primary sites of DENV replication. This study aimed to identify potential host miRNAs that target 3' UTR of all four DENV serotypes, thereby directly regulating viral gene expression or indirectly modulating the host system at different virus infection steps. We used four prediction algorithms viz. miRanda, RNA22, RNAhybrid and StarMir for predicting miRNA, targeting 3'UTR of all four DENV serotypes. Statistically, the most significant miRNA targets were screened based on their Log10 P-value (> 0.0001) of Gene Ontology (GO) term and Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Gene and Genome (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. The intersection test of at least three prediction tools identified a total of 30 miRNAs, which could bind to 3'UTR of all four DENV serotypes. Of the 30, eight miRNAs were of hematopoietic cell origin. GO term enrichment and KEGG analysis showed four hemopoietic origin miRNAs target genes of the biological processes mainly involved in the innate immune response, mRNA 3'-end processing, antigen processing and presentation and nuclear-transcribed mRNA catabolic process.

MicroRNA-134 regulates poliovirus replication by IRES targeting

Global poliovirus eradication efforts include high vaccination coverage with live oral polio vaccine (OPV), surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis, and OPV “mop-up” campaigns. An important objective involves host-directed strategies to reduce PV replication to diminish viral shedding in OPV recipients. In this study, we show that microRNA-134-5p (miR-134) can regulate Sabin-1 replication but not Sabin-2 or Sabin-3 via direct interaction with the PV 5′UTR. Hypochromicity data showed miR-134 binding to Sabin-1 and 3 but not Sabin-2 IRES. Transfection of a miR-134 mimic repressed translation of Sabin-1 5′UTR driven luciferase validating the mechanism of miR-134-mediated repression of Sabin-1. Further, site directed mutagenesis of the miR-134 binding site in Sabin-1 IRES relieved miR-134-mediated repression indicating that these regulatory molecules have an important role in regulating the host gene response to PV. Binding of miR-134 to Sabin-1 IRES caused degradation of the IRES transcript in a miR-134 and sequence specific manner. The miR-134 binding site was found to be highly conserved in wild type PV-1 as well as EV71 strains indicating that miR-134 may regulate function of these IRES sequences in circulation.