Abstract
The 2014 outbreak of Ebola virus caused more than 10,000 human deaths. Current knowledge of suitable drugs, clinical diagnostic biomarkers and molecular mechanisms of Ebola virus infection is either absent or insufficient. By screening stem-loop structures from the viral genomes of four virulence species, we identified a novel, putative viral microRNA precursor that is specifically expressed by the Ebola virus. The sequence of the microRNA precursor was further confirmed by mining the existing RNA-Seq database. Two putative mature microRNAs were predicted and subsequently validated in human cell lines. Combined with this prediction of the microRNA target, we identified importin-α5, which is a key regulator of interferon signaling following Ebola virus infection, as one putative target. We speculate that this microRNA could facilitate the evasion of the host immune system by the virus. Moreover, this microRNA might be a potential clinical therapeutic target or a diagnostic biomarker for Ebola virus.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by grants from the National Science and Technology Major Project (2013ZX10004608), Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC31071316 and NSFC81261130024), National Science and Technology Major Project (2012AA020601), Ministry of Science/Technology (2009CB941701), State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology Grants (2015SKLAB6-13) and the CAU Scientific Fund (No. 2012YJ034).
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Liu, Y., Sun, J., Zhang, H. et al. Ebola virus encodes a miR-155 analog to regulate importin-α5 expression. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 73, 3733–3744 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-016-2215-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-016-2215-0