microRNA与病毒感染

microRNA and viral infection

microRNA是一类新近发现的由20-23个核苷酸构成的非编码RNA分子,它在生命进程中起着重要作用。病毒的复制和繁殖依赖于宿主细胞,而且对细胞环境的变化敏感。研究表明宿主和病毒都可以编码microRNA,病毒可通过小RNA介导的干扰作用影响宿主细胞,也能利用自身的"独特战略"改变宿主细胞从而满足自己生存的需求,所以,宿主与病毒间存在microRNA-mRNA相互作用的机制。尽管对microRNA与病毒感染的关系研究时间不长,但目前的研究结果为我们理解病毒和宿主之间的相互作用提供了一条途径,并为寻找病毒感染的生物标志物和治疗方法提供了新的思路。

microRNA is a species of regulatory RNA molecules that are involved in the control of a variety of biological processes. microRNA is small noncoding and single-stranded RNA species of approximately 20-23 bases in length. The replication and propagation of virus rely on host ceils, and are sensitive to the change of the cellular environment. Both host and virus are demonstrated to encode microRNA. Viruses may interfere with the metabolism of host cells by means of microRNA, and can also change host cells to make them live. Thus, the relationship of virus and host cells involves the mechanism of the microRNA-mRNA interaction. Although the research on the viral infection and microRNA did not begin until recently, the results obtained so far provide a way to understand the interaction of virus and hosts and offer new ideas to search for biological markers and therapeutics.