Systematic Genome-wide Screening and Prediction of microRNAs in EBOV During the 2014 Ebolavirus Outbreak

Sci Rep. 2015 May 26:5:9912. doi: 10.1038/srep09912.

Abstract

Recently, several thousand people have been killed by the Ebolavirus disease (EVD) in West Africa, yet no current antiviral medications and treatments are available. Systematic investigation of ebolavirus whole genomes during the 2014 outbreak may shed light on the underlying mechanisms of EVD development. Here, using the genome-wide screening in ebolavirus genome sequences, we predicted four putative viral microRNA precursors (pre-miRNAs) and seven putative mature microRNAs (miRNAs). Combing bioinformatics analysis and prediction of the potential ebolavirus miRNA target genes, we suggest that two ebolavirus coding possible miRNAs may be silence and down-regulate the target genes NFKBIE and RIPK1, which are the central mediator of the pathways related with host cell defense mechanism. Additionally, the ebolavirus exploits the miRNAs to inhibit the NF-kB and TNF factors to evade the host defense mechanisms that limit replication by killing infected cells, or to conversely trigger apoptosis as a mechanism to increase virus spreading. This is the first study to use the genome-wide scanning to predict microRNAs in the 2014 outbreak EVD and then to apply systematic bioinformatics to analyze their target genes. We revealed a potential mechanism of miRNAs in ebolavirus infection and possible therapeutic targets for Ebola viral infection treatment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Base Sequence
  • Computational Biology
  • Disease Outbreaks
  • Ebolavirus / genetics*
  • Ebolavirus / isolation & purification
  • Gene Regulatory Networks
  • Genome, Viral*
  • HeLa Cells
  • Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / epidemiology*
  • Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / virology
  • Histone Deacetylases / chemistry
  • Histone Deacetylases / genetics
  • Humans
  • MicroRNAs / metabolism*
  • NF-kappa B / antagonists & inhibitors
  • NF-kappa B / metabolism
  • Nucleic Acid Conformation
  • Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 / genetics
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Receptor-Interacting Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Receptor-Interacting Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / genetics
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Signal Transduction

Substances

  • JARID2 protein, human
  • MicroRNAs
  • NF-kappa B
  • Polycomb Repressive Complex 2
  • RIPK1 protein, human
  • Receptor-Interacting Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases
  • HDAC5 protein, human
  • Histone Deacetylases