Abstract
Coronaviruses (CoVs) are single-stranded RNA viruses which following virus attachment and entry into the host cell, particularly type 2 pneumocytes but also endothelial cells, release RNA into cytosol where it serves as a matrix for the host translation machinery to produce viral proteins. The viral RNA in cytoplasm can interact with host cell microRNAs which can degrade viral RNA and/or prevent viral replication. As such host cellular miRNAs represent key cellular mediators of antiviral defense. Polyphenols, plant food bioactives, exert antiviral properties, which is partially due to their capacity to modulate the expression of miRNAs. The objective of this work was to assess if polyphenols can play a role in prevention of SARS-CoV-2 associated complications by modulating the expression of host miRNAs. To test this hypothesis, we performed literature search to identify miRNAs that could bind SARS-CoV-2 RNA as well as miRNAs which expression can be modulated by polyphenols in lung, type 2 pneumocytes or endothelial cells. We identified over 600 miRNAs that have capacity to bind viral RNA and 125 miRNAs which expression can be modulated by polyphenols in the cells of interest. We identified that there are 17 miRNAs with both the capacity to bind viral RNA and which expression can be modulated by polyphenols. Some of these miRNAs have been identified as having antiviral properties or can target genes involved in regulation of processes of viral replication, apoptosis or viral infection. Taken together this analysis suggests that polyphenols could modulate expression of miRNAs in alveolar and endothelial cells and exert antiviral capacity.
Highlights
Faced with the enormous health and socioeconomic burden of the current COVID-19 pandemic, humanity makes every effort to develop effective measures to deal with the crisis in all segments of the society
Srivastava et al [53] used computational approach to investigate the potential binding sites of human miRNAs in SARS-CoV-2 genome using the Find Individual Motif Occurrences (FIMO), a motif-based sequence analysis tool [54]. They identified 22 miRNAs that could potentially bind throughout the length of the SARS-CoV2 viral genome. These results suggest that several important miRNAs are likely being titrated by SARSCoV-2 genome that could result in dysregulation of posttranscriptional networks in the infected cells
Regarding hsamiR-125b, its antiviral activities were described for human papillomavirus and respiratory syndrome [92, 93]. Taken together this analysis suggests that polyphenols could modulate expression of miRNAs in alveolar and endothelial cells and exert antiviral capacity
Summary
Faced with the enormous health and socioeconomic burden of the current COVID-19 pandemic, humanity makes every effort to develop effective measures to deal with the crisis in all segments of the society. While social distancing plays an important role, other lifestyle factors, including diet, may have potential to counteract viral susceptibility. In addition to pivotal macro- and micro-nutrients, an adequate and continuous intake of various bioactive compounds, including polyphenols, has been pointed out as a contributing factor in the increased resistance to viral infections [1]. Polyphenols are plant secondary metabolites that have various physiological functions in their dwelling plants. They are widespread in planta, with over 8000 different compounds described so far. Many of these compounds are found only in a limited number or in specific plant
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