病毒miRNA研究新进展

Advances on studies of the virally-encoded microRNAs

MicmRNA（miRNA）是一类由多细胞真核生物编码的长度约为22个核苷酸的调控RNA分子，它们在许多重要细胞过程中参与转录后基因表达调控。某些病毒也能编码miRNA。目前发现的病毒miRNA已经超过200种，病毒利用这些miRNA可以调节细胞及其自身的基因表达。此文就编码miRNA的病毒，病毒miRNA的作用机制、生物学功能、保守性及其与疾病治疗的关系等内容进行综述。

MicroRNAs（miRNAs） are 22-nt regulatory RNAs expressed by all multicellular eukaryotes. These regulatory RNAs provide a unique level of posttranscripfional gene regulation that modulates a range of fundamental cellular processes. Several viruses also encode miRNAs, and over 200 viral miRNAs have now been identified. Current evidence indicates that viruses use these miRNAs to manipulate both cellular and viral gene expression. The current knowledge of the viruses that encode miRNAs, mechanisms of action and biological function of virally-encoded miRNAs, conservation and theraputic development of viral miRNAs are reviewed in this paper.