The miRNA world of polyomaviruses

Abstract

Polyomaviruses are a family of non-enveloped DNA viruses infecting several species, including humans, primates, birds, rodents, bats, horse, cattle, raccoon and sea lion. They typically cause asymptomatic infection and establish latency but can be reactivated under certain conditions causing severe diseases. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that play important roles in several cellular processes by binding to and inhibiting the translation of specific mRNA transcripts. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of microRNAs involved in polyomavirus infection. We review in detail the different viral miRNAs that have been discovered and the role they play in controlling both host and viral protein expression. We also give an overview of the current understanding on how host miRNAs may function in controlling polyomavirus replication, immune evasion and pathogenesis.

The JCPYV DNA load inversely correlates with the viral microrna expression in blood and cerebrospinal fluid of patients at risk of PML

“…Indeed, this may The relative abundance (%) of each sequence variant is reported. The JCV-miR-J1 sequence from miRBase V20 was used as a reference sequence [6]. The first nt mutation introduces the amino acid change F653S.…”

“…These events may be involved in the development of PML, yet the initiating events remain unknown [1]. Recently, it was discovered that JCPyV encodes two different microRNAs (miRNAs), small, noncoding RNAs that are 22 nucleotides long [5,6], named miR-J1-3p and -5p [7], and that these miRNAs may play a potential regulatory role in the JCPyV virus life cycle and in viral persistence [8][9][10]. Consequently, a reduction in JCPyV miRNA expression and/or its variability could be relevant for the induction of JCPyV reactivation, the succession of persistence/replication viral processes and the development of PML.…”

Naturally Arising Strains of Polyomaviruses with Severely Attenuated MicroRNA Expression

“…Our previous work has established that at least 6 different polyomaviruses encode miRNAs that are all capable of regulating T antigen transcripts via RISC-mediated cleavage (19,20,22,23,33,52,53). Furthermore, bandicoot papillomatosis carcinomatosis viruses 1 and 2 (BPCV1 and -2), which are hybrid polyoma-papillomaviruses, also encode miRNAs capable of regulating the T antigen transcripts, albeit this likely does not occur through RISC-mediated direct cleavage of the target transcripts (24).…”

Chikungunya Virus Infection Alters Expression of MicroRNAs Involved in Cellular Proliferation, Immune Response and Apoptosis

“…miRNAs, which are endogenous post-transcription/translation inhibitors, have been shown to play an important role in various viral infections. Several DNA viruses and retroviruses are known to code for their own miRNAs or have been shown to modulate the host cellular miRNAs for their replication and disease development [9,10,11,12,13,14]. On the other hand, alphaviruses, which are the RNA viruses, are not known to encode miRNAs [26].…”

“…miRNAs have been shown to play important roles in several viral infections [9,10,11,12,13,14], and miRNA modulation in CHIKV-infected primary fibroblast cells has been reported to be related to the induction of TGF-β and downregulation of anaphase-promoting complex genes [4]. In this study, we tested miRNA modulation in mouse fibroblast cells early after the infection to identify pathways that are targeted by the CHIKV immediately after the infection.…”