Janice Duy, Anna N Honko, Louis A Altamura, Sandra L Bixler, Suzanne Wollen-Roberts, Nadia Wauquier, Aileen O'Hearn, Eric M Mucker, Joshua C Johnson, Joshua D Shamblin, Justine Zelko, Miriam A Botto, James Bangura, Moinya Coomber, M Louise Pitt, Jean-Paul Gonzalez, Randal J Schoepp, Arthur J Goff, Timothy D Minogue
Ebola virus (EBOV) is a negative-strand RNA virus that replicates in the cytoplasm and causes an often-fatal hemorrhagic fever. EBOV, like other viruses, can reportedly encode its own microRNAs (miRNAs) to subvert host immune defenses. miRNAs are short noncoding RNAs that can regulate gene expression by hybridizing to multiple mRNAs, and viral miRNAs can enhance viral replication and infectivity by regulating host or viral genes. To date, only one EBOV miRNA has been examined in human infection. Here, we assayed mouse, rhesus macaque, cynomolgus macaque, and human samples infected with three EBOV variants for twelve computationally predicted viral miRNAs using RT-qPCR...
April 24, 2018: Scientific Reports