Mensah-Bonsu Melvin, Doss Christopher, Gloster Clay, Muganda Perpetua
Applied Science and Technology Ph.D. Program, North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, USA.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, USA.
Genes (Basel). 2024 Mar 25;15(4):403. doi: 10.3390/genes15040403.
Ebola virus (EBOV) is a highly pathogenic virus that causes a severe illness called Ebola virus disease (EVD). EVD has a high mortality rate and remains a significant threat to public health. Research on EVD pathogenesis has traditionally focused on host transcriptional responses. Limited recent studies, however, have revealed some information on the significance of cellular microRNAs (miRNAs) in EBOV infection and pathogenic mechanisms, but further studies are needed. Thus, this study aimed to identify and validate additional known and novel human miRNAs in EBOV-infected adult retinal pigment epithelial (ARPE) cells and predict their potential roles in EBOV infection and pathogenic mechanisms. We analyzed previously available small RNA-Seq data obtained from ARPE cells and identified 23 upregulated and seven downregulated miRNAs in the EBOV-infected cells; these included two novel miRNAs and 17 additional known miRNAs not previously identified in ARPE cells. In addition to pathways previously identified by others, these miRNAs are associated with pathways and biological processes that include WNT, FoxO, and phosphatidylinositol signaling; these pathways were not identified in the original study. This study thus confirms and expands on the previous study using the same datasets and demonstrates further the importance of human miRNAs in the host response and EVD pathogenesis during infection.
埃博拉病毒（EBOV）是一种高致病性病毒，可引发一种名为埃博拉病毒病（EVD）的严重疾病。EVD死亡率很高，仍然是对公共卫生的重大威胁。传统上，关于EVD发病机制的研究主要集中在宿主转录反应上。然而，最近的有限研究揭示了一些关于细胞微小RNA（miRNA）在EBOV感染和致病机制中的重要性的信息，但仍需要进一步研究。因此，本研究旨在鉴定和验证埃博拉病毒感染的成人视网膜色素上皮（ARPE）细胞中其他已知和新的人类miRNA，并预测它们在埃博拉病毒感染和致病机制中的潜在作用。我们分析了之前从ARPE细胞获得的小RNA测序数据，在埃博拉病毒感染的细胞中鉴定出23种上调的miRNA和7种下调的miRNA；其中包括两种新的miRNA和另外17种以前在ARPE细胞中未鉴定出的已知miRNA。除了其他人之前确定的途径外，这些miRNA还与包括WNT、FoxO和磷脂酰肌醇信号传导在内的途径和生物学过程相关；这些途径在原研究中未被发现。因此，本研究使用相同的数据集证实并扩展了先前的研究，并进一步证明了人类miRNA在感染期间宿主反应和埃博拉病毒病发病机制中的重要性。
