Host serum microRNA profiling during the early stage of foot-and-mouth disease virus infection

Abstract

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) causes a highly contagious infection in cloven-hoofed animals, with many outbreaks in the developing world. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs that regulate antiviral defence by post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. In this study, the host miRNA response following FMDV infection was investigated in cattle, a natural host for FMDV. A significant alteration in serum miRNA expression was detected at early stages of infection. Compared to prior to infection, on day 2 postinfection (PI), 119 miRNAs were upregulated, of which 39 were significantly upregulated (P < 0.05). Gene target prediction and pathway enrichment analysis suggested that upregulated miRNAs target innate immune signalling pathways, suggesting a homeostasis effect, possibly to limit inappropriate immune responses. Further, for the significantly upregulated miRNAs, nine miRNA recognition elements were identified in the genome sequence of FMDV serotype O, which was used for infection. The antiviral effect of four of these miRNAs was confirmed in a cell culture system. These data demonstrate that changes in miRNA expression occur during early pathogenesis, and the identification of possible miRNA targets genes could help in elucidating molecular events involved in virus-host interaction and thus could be useful in developing therapeutic strategies.

Efficient inhibition of foot-and-mouth disease virus replication in vitro by artificial microRNA targeting 3D polymerase

“…Further, antiviral effect of host miR-203a mimics against FMDV was reported previously (Gutkoska et al, 2017). We have recently shown that transient expression of host miRNAs appears to target FMD virus genomic RNA in cell culture (Basagoudanavar et al, 2018). Also, other studies have shown inhibitory effect of artificial miRNAs (amiRNAs) on FMDV, by targeting either the IRES sequence in the 5'-UTR, or 3'-UTR or the 3D polymerase (Chang et al, 2014;Du et al, 2011;Gismondi et al, 2014).…”

Computational insights into RNAi-based therapeutics for foot and mouth disease of Bos taurus

“…However, the magnitude of the antiviral effect of the 8 miRNA mimics was observed to be varying. This could be attributed to the difference in the degree of sequence-specific miRNA interactions with viral elements as reported previously 31,33 and depends on the concentrations of miRNAs and targets. Further, the results of the experimental validation of all the considered 8 host miRNAs also supported the in silico predictions by more or less reducing the viral replication.…”

“…The study of anti-FMDV miRNAs in Bos taurus revealed 12 mature miRNAs (8 from miRBase www.nature.com/scientificreports/ and 4 from VIRmiRNA databases) having a total of 284 targets in 98 distinct FMDV genomic sequences, which suggests the possible existence of miRNA based anti-FMDV mechanism in Bos taurus to defend the FMDV. Viable miRNA targets have been identified by researchers worldwide with high reliability through miRNA profiling efforts that have been conducted with FMDV infected pigs and cattle 31,32 . This has inspired us to experimentally validate a handful of host miRNAs for their anti-FMDV properties.…”

Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2: A Review on the Current Scenario and Future Outlook

“…• Severe disease and higher mortality has been seen in the male sex (Goyal et al, 2020;Zheng et al, 2020). Testing certain asymptomatic individuals may also be important for infection control purposes (for e.g., in congregate settings where COVID-19 cases have been identified, prior to time-sensitive surgical procedures, and prior to time-sensitive aerosol-generating procedures if PPE (personal protective equipment) supplies are limited, and in hospitalized patients at locations where prevalence is high (McIntosh, 2020).…”