TY - JOUR
T1 - MicroRNAs and long non-coding RNAs as potential candidates to target specific motifs of SARS-CoV-2
AU - Natarelli, Lucia
AU - Parca, Luca
AU - Mazza, Tommaso
AU - Weber, Christian
AU - Virgili, Fabio
AU - Fratantonio, Deborah
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), TRR267, and SFB1123 to C.W. and L.N.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - The respiratory system is one of the most affected targets of SARS-CoV-2. Various therapies have been utilized to counter viral-induced inflammatory complications, with diverse success rates. Pending the distribution of an effective vaccine to the whole population and the achievement of “herd immunity”, the discovery of novel specific therapies is to be considered a very important objective. Here, we report a computational study demonstrating the existence of target motifs in the SARS-CoV-2 genome suitable for specific binding with endogenous human micro and long non-coding RNAs (miRNAs and lncRNAs, respectively), which can, therefore, be considered a conceptual background for the development of miRNA-based drugs against COVID-19. The SARSCoV- 2 genome contains three motifs in the 50UTR leader sequence recognized by selective nucleotides within the seed sequence of specific human miRNAs. The seed of 57 microRNAs contained a “GGG” motif that promoted leader sequence-recognition, primarily through offset-6mer sites able to promote microRNAs noncanonical binding to viral RNA. Similarly, lncRNA H19 binds to the 50UTR of the viral genome and, more specifically, to the transcript of the viral gene Spike, which has a pivotal role in viral infection. Notably, some of the non-coding RNAs identified in our study as candidates for inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 gene expression have already been proposed against diverse viral infections, pulmonary arterial hypertension, and related diseases.
AB - The respiratory system is one of the most affected targets of SARS-CoV-2. Various therapies have been utilized to counter viral-induced inflammatory complications, with diverse success rates. Pending the distribution of an effective vaccine to the whole population and the achievement of “herd immunity”, the discovery of novel specific therapies is to be considered a very important objective. Here, we report a computational study demonstrating the existence of target motifs in the SARS-CoV-2 genome suitable for specific binding with endogenous human micro and long non-coding RNAs (miRNAs and lncRNAs, respectively), which can, therefore, be considered a conceptual background for the development of miRNA-based drugs against COVID-19. The SARSCoV- 2 genome contains three motifs in the 50UTR leader sequence recognized by selective nucleotides within the seed sequence of specific human miRNAs. The seed of 57 microRNAs contained a “GGG” motif that promoted leader sequence-recognition, primarily through offset-6mer sites able to promote microRNAs noncanonical binding to viral RNA. Similarly, lncRNA H19 binds to the 50UTR of the viral genome and, more specifically, to the transcript of the viral gene Spike, which has a pivotal role in viral infection. Notably, some of the non-coding RNAs identified in our study as candidates for inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 gene expression have already been proposed against diverse viral infections, pulmonary arterial hypertension, and related diseases.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Non-coding RNAs
KW - Oligosequences
KW - SARS-CoV-2
KW - Target therapy
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U2 - 10.3390/ncrna7010014
DO - 10.3390/ncrna7010014
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85104898774
VL - 7
SP - 1
EP - 16
JO - Non-coding RNA
JF - Non-coding RNA
SN - 2311-553X
IS - 1
M1 - 14
ER -