Mahmoud Ismail, Ahmed Amr E, Shaker Olfat
Department of Biotechnology and Life Sciences, Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies for Advanced Sciences, Beni Suef University, Beni Suef, Egypt.
Department of Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Mol Biol Rep. 2025 Mar 17;52(1):320. doi: 10.1007/s11033-025-10340-6.
Since 2019, COVID-19 and its mutants have been among the fiercest epidemic viruses. Coronavirus is still affecting the world and will continue through its various mutants, the closest example of which is the XEC mutant. Vaccines are currently available to prevent coronavirus infections. However, the currently approved treatments after infection, especially for severely infected patients, are still limited, and they are not suitable for everyone. Many studies have investigated the ability of furin to repair coronavirus viral proteins, and other studies have shown how important miRNAs are for controlling gene expression.
This work aims to clarify the role of furin and the possibility of alleviating the burden of viral infection with COVID-19 and its mutations via effects on miR-20b and miR-106a.
We collected blood samples from 40 controls and 50 patients. Each patient provided approximately 3 ml of blood, which was separated for measuring furin by ELISA and extracting RNA for real-time PCR for the relative quantification of miRNAs.
The serum levels of Furin and miR-106 were considerably greater in the COVID-19 group than in the control group; however, the level of miR-20b was considerably greater in the control group than in the patients group.
These data suggest that furin and miR-20b concentrations could be beneficial in therapeutic approaches against COVID-19.
自2019年以来，新冠病毒及其变异株一直是最凶猛的流行病毒之一。冠状病毒仍在影响着世界，并将通过其各种变异株持续传播，最典型的例子就是XEC变异株。目前已有预防冠状病毒感染的疫苗。然而，目前批准的感染后治疗方法，尤其是针对重症患者的治疗方法仍然有限，且并非适用于所有人。许多研究调查了弗林蛋白酶修复冠状病毒病毒蛋白的能力，其他研究则表明了微小RNA（miRNA）对控制基因表达的重要性。
本研究旨在阐明弗林蛋白酶的作用，以及通过对miR-20b和miR-106a的影响来减轻新冠病毒感染及其突变带来的病毒感染负担的可能性。
我们收集了40名对照者和50名患者的血样。每位患者提供约3毫升血液，分离出血液用于通过酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）法检测弗林蛋白酶，并提取RNA用于实时聚合酶链反应（PCR）以相对定量miRNA。
新冠病毒感染组的弗林蛋白酶和miR-106血清水平显著高于对照组；然而，对照组的miR-20b水平显著高于患者组。
这些数据表明，弗林蛋白酶和miR-20b浓度可能有助于针对新冠病毒的治疗方法。
