Journal of Microbial & Biochemical Technology

Predicting a novel hypothetical miRNA encoded by Hepatitis C virus

World Congress and Expo on Applied Microbiology

August 18-20, 2015 Frankfurt, Germany

Ali Najafi, Soad Ghabeshi, Reza Ranjbar and Nadia Jahande

Baqiyatallah University of Medical Science, Iran

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Microb Biochem Technol

Abstract:

HCV infection is a prevalent disease with approximately 170 million individuals (3%) chronically infected worldwide. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small (17-23 nucleotides) non-coding RNAs that serve as post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression. Viruses can also encode viral miRNAs to alter host physiology or to influence its replication. The purpose of this study was to predict a novel miRNA encoded by 5â??-UTR hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome. RNA secondary structure prediction tool, Blastn, and multiple sequence alignment tools were used for identify new member of miRNA and its target. In this study, a novel small RNA encoded by 5â??-UTR hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome has been predicted that regulated fork-head box K2 (FOXK2) gene. Predictionally, the small RNA could down regulate a human transcription factor known as Interleukin enhancer binding factor (FOXK2) via RNAi pathway in human cells. FOXK2 activates interleukin-2 gene and then induces the human immune responses. Possibly, HCV interferes with the human immune system by generating viral encoded small RNA to knock down its target the FOXK2 mRNA.