PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Olanrewaju B. Morenikeji
AU  - Muyiwa S. Adegbaju
AU  - Olayinka S. Okoh
AU  - Asegunloluwa E. Babalola
AU  - Anastasia Grytsay
AU  - Olubumi A. Braimah
AU  - Mabel O. Akinyemi
AU  - Bolaji N. Thomas
TI  - Deciphering inhibitory mechanism of coronavirus replication through host miRNAs-RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) interactome
AID  - 10.1101/2022.06.18.496304
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.06.18.496304
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/06/19/2022.06.18.496304.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/06/19/2022.06.18.496304.full
AB  - Despite what we know so far, Covid-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, remains a pandemic that still require urgent healthcare intervention. The frequent mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has rendered disease control with vaccines and antiviral drugs quite difficult and challenging, with newer variants surfacing constantly. There is therefore the need for newer, effective and efficacious drugs against coronaviruses. Considering the role of RNA dependent, RNA polymerase (RdRp) as an important enzyme necessary for the virus life cycle and its conservation among coronaviruses, we investigated potential host miRNAs that can be employed as broad-range antiviral drugs averse to coronaviruses, with particular emphasis on BCoV, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. miRNAs are small molecules capable of binding mRNA and regulate expression at transcriptional or translational levels. Our hypothesis is that host miRNAs have the potential of blocking coronavirus replication through miRNA-RdRp mRNA interaction. To investigate this, we downloaded the open reading frame (ORF 1ab) nucleotide sequences and used them to interrogate miRNA databases for miRNAs that can bind them. We employed various bioinformatics tools to predict and identify the most effective host miRNAs. In all, we found 27 miRNAs that target RdRp mRNA of multiple coronaviruses, of which three - hsa-miR-1283, hsa-miR-579-3p, and hsa-miR-664b-3p target BCoV, SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, hsa-miR-374a-5p has three bovine miRNAs homologs viz bta-miR-374a, bta-miR-374b, and bta-miR-374c. Inhibiting the expression of RdRp enzyme via non-coding RNA is novel and of great therapeutic importance in the control of coronavirus replication, and could serve as a broad-spectrum antiviral, with hsa-miR-1283, hsa-miR-579-3p, and hsa-miR-664b-3p highly promising.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.