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Investigating non-coding RNA interactions impacting coronavirus infectivity and immune control
Summary
Coronaviruses (CoVs) have been shown to pose a significant risk for the human population, exemplified by the emergence of highly pathogenic viruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). As obligate intracellular pathogens, viruses are utterly dependent on host cellular processes. Consequently, exploring virus-host interactions is essential to understand mechanisms regulating the viral replicative cycle and any pathological outcomes associated with an infection. So far, most of our knowledge of the virus-host interplay has been obtained by studying protein-protein interactions. However, advances in sequencing technology have revealed that the majority of the mammalian genome is pervasively transcribed, with only 2–3% of transcripts possessing protein-coding potential . The so-called non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been increasingly recognized and characterized to be involved in multiple regulatory and cellular processes, including virus-host interactions.
The overall aim of this project proposal is to identify and elucidate the role of non-coding RNAs during coronavirus replication and immune control. Highlighting the importance of ncRNAs will provide novel opportunities to tackle critical interactions between viruses and their host to enable the identification of targets for pharmaceutical intervention. We hypothesize that ncRNAs can significantly impact CoV infection, which might contribute to viral susceptibility and immune control.
Our Work Packages (WP):
WP1: Identification of miRNAs as CoV restriction factors
WP2: Characterization of lncRNAs as contributors towards CoV immune control.
WP3: Functional characterization
WP4: Exploration of specific delivery strategies
Team
Prof. Dr. Stephanie Pfänder
Principal Investigator
E-mail address:
Phone: +49 (0)40 48051-245
Research Group Pfänder
The Research Group Emerging Viruses is based at the Leibniz Institute of Virology (LIV).