Computational analysis of microRNA-mediated antiviral defense in humans

Yuka Watanabe, Atsuko Kishi, Nozomu Yachie, Akio Kanai, Masaru Tomita

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

39 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recent studies have proposed the interesting perspective that viral gene expression is downregulated by host microRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs well known as post-transcriptional gene regulators. We computationally predicted human miRNA target sites within 228 human-infecting and 348 invertebrate-infecting virus genomes, and we observed that human-infecting viruses were more likely than invertebrate-infecting ones to be targeted by human miRNAs. We listed 62 possible human miRNA-targeted viruses from 6 families, most of which consisted of single-stranded RNA viruses. These results suggest that miRNAs extensively mediate antiviral defenses in humans.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4603-4610
Number of pages8
JournalFEBS Letters
Volume581
Issue number24
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2007 Oct 2

Keywords

  • Bioinformatics
  • Homo sapiens
  • MicroRNA
  • TargetScan
  • ssRNA-positive strand virus

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biophysics
  • Structural Biology
  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics
  • Cell Biology

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