SORA

Advancing, promoting and sharing knowledge of health through excellence in teaching, clinical practice and research into the prevention and treatment of illness

The Prediction of miRNAs in SARS-CoV-2 Genomes: hsa-miR Databases Identify 7 Key miRs Linked to Host Responses and Virus Pathogenicity-Related KEGG Pathways Significant for Comorbidities.

Arisan, ED; Dart, A; Grant, GH; Arisan, S; Cuhadaroglu, S; Lange, S; Uysal-Onganer, P (2020) The Prediction of miRNAs in SARS-CoV-2 Genomes: hsa-miR Databases Identify 7 Key miRs Linked to Host Responses and Virus Pathogenicity-Related KEGG Pathways Significant for Comorbidities. Viruses, 12 (6). p. 614. ISSN 1999-4915 https://doi.org/10.3390/v12060614
SGUL Authors: Dart, Dafydd Alwyn

[img]
Preview
PDF Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (12MB) | Preview

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a member of the betacoronavirus family, which causes COVID-19 disease. SARS-CoV-2 pathogenicity in humans leads to increased mortality rates due to alterations of significant pathways, including some resulting in exacerbated inflammatory responses linked to the "cytokine storm" and extensive lung pathology, as well as being linked to a number of comorbidities. Our current study compared five SARS-CoV-2 sequences from different geographical regions to those from SARS, MERS and two cold viruses, OC43 and 229E, to identify the presence of miR-like sequences. We identified seven key miRs, which highlight considerable differences between the SARS-CoV-2 sequences, compared with the other viruses. The level of conservation between the five SARS-CoV-2 sequences was identical but poor compared with the other sequences, with SARS showing the highest degree of conservation. This decrease in similarity could result in reduced levels of transcriptional control, as well as a change in the physiological effect of the virus and associated host-pathogen responses. MERS and the milder symptom viruses showed greater differences and even significant sequence gaps. This divergence away from the SARS-CoV-2 sequences broadly mirrors the phylogenetic relationships obtained from the whole-genome alignments. Therefore, patterns of mutation, occurring during sequence divergence from the longer established human viruses to the more recent ones, may have led to the emergence of sequence motifs that can be related directly to the pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2. Importantly, we identified 7 key-microRNAs (miRs 8066, 5197, 3611, 3934-3p, 1307-3p, 3691-3p, 1468-5p) with significant links to KEGG pathways linked to viral pathogenicity and host responses. According to Bioproject data (PRJNA615032), SARS-CoV-2 mediated transcriptomic alterations were similar to the target pathways of the selected 7 miRs identified in our study. This mechanism could have considerable significance in determining the symptom spectrum of future potential pandemics. KEGG pathway analysis revealed a number of critical pathways linked to the seven identified miRs that may provide insight into the interplay between the virus and comorbidities. Based on our reported findings, miRNAs may constitute potential and effective therapeutic approaches in COVID-19 and its pathological consequences.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: COVID-19, SARS–CoV-2, cell signalling pathways, comorbidities., coronavirus, microRNAs (miRs 8066, 5197, 3611, 3934-3p, 1307-3p, 3691-3p, 1468-5p), viral pathogenesis
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Institute of Medical & Biomedical Education (IMBE)
Journal or Publication Title: Viruses
ISSN: 1999-4915
Language: eng
Dates:
DateEvent
4 June 2020Published
2 June 2020Accepted
Publisher License: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
PubMed ID: 32512929
Go to PubMed abstract
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/112058
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.3390/v12060614

Actions (login required)

Edit Item Edit Item