Intestinal microRNAs influence the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 genome

In human somatic cells, microRNAs - non-coding RNAs about 22 nucleotides long - bind to RNA viruses and affect their translation and replication. The staff of the HSE Laboratory for Research on Molecular Mechanisms of Longevity, together with colleagues from Armenia and the USA, analyzed the effect of microRNAs characteristic of various human organs on the genome of the virus. It turned out that only human intestinal microRNAs exert significant evolutionary pressure on the SARS-CoV-2 genome. The overwhelming number of binding sites of these microRNAs falls on the region encoding the viral protein NSP4. It is noteworthy that in infected cells, NSP4 is responsible for the formation of two-membrane vesicles, which serve as the basis for replication-transcription complexes of the virus and protect its RNA from intracellular destruction. Significant rearrangements in this region have led to the dominance of variants of the Omicron BA.2 strain and their dominant role in the current dynamics of the pandemic.

 

Currently, the results of the study are being reviewed and are available on the bioRxiv portal.