Abstract : SARS-CoV-2 infection results in impaired interferon response in patients with severe COVID-19. However, how SARS-CoV-2 interferes with host immune responses is incompletely understood. Here, we sequence small RNAs from SARS-CoV-2-infected human cells and identify a microRNA (miRNA) derived from a recently evolved region of the viral genome. We show that the virus-derived miRNA produces two miRNA isoforms in infected cells by the enzyme Dicer, which are loaded into Argonaute proteins. Moreover, the predominant miRNA isoform targets the 3'UTR of interferon-stimulated genes and represses their expression in a miRNA-like fashion. Finally, the two viral miRNA isoforms were detected in nasopharyngeal swabs from COVID-19 patients. We propose that SARS-CoV-2 can potentially employ a virus-derived miRNA to hijack the host miRNA machinery, which could help to evade the interferon-mediated immune response.
https://hal-pasteur.archives-ouvertes.fr/pasteur-03514377 Contributor : Germano CECEREConnect in order to contact the contributor Submitted on : Thursday, January 6, 2022 - 11:45:20 AM Last modification on : Tuesday, June 7, 2022 - 4:20:12 PM Long-term archiving on: : Thursday, April 7, 2022 - 6:58:17 PM