silencing viral microrna as a novel antiviral therapy沉默微rna病毒作为一种新型抗病毒治疗.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology Volume 2009, Article ID 419539, 18 pages doi:10.1155/2009/419539 Review Article Silencing Viral MicroRNA as a Novel Antiviral Therapy? Ugo Moens Department of Microbiology and Virology, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway Correspondence should be addressed to Ugo Moens, ugom@fagmed.uit.no Received 28 December 2008; Accepted 20 March 2009 Recommended by Bibekanand Mallick Viruses are intracellular parasites that ensure their existence by converting host cells into viral particle producing entities or into hiding places rendering the virus invisible to the host immune system. Some viruses may also survive by transforming the infected cell into an immortal tumour cell. MicroRNAs are small non-coding transcripts that function as posttranscriptional regulators of gene expression. Viruses encode miRNAs that regulate expression of both cellular and viral genes, and contribute to the pathogenic properties of viruses. Hence, neutralizing the action of viral miRNAs expression by complementary single-stranded oligonucleotides or so-called anti-miRNAs may represent a strategy to combat viral infections and viral-induced pathogenesis. This review describes the miRNAs encoded by human viruses, and discusses the possible therapeutic applications of anti-miRNAs against viral diseases. Copyright © 2009 Ugo Moens. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1. Introduction [10]. Thus the pathogenic properties of viruses necessitate