Int J Mol Sci Breakthrough! The study identified possible immune targets in the SARS-CoV-2 genome!

July 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists at the University of Otago, which studies the COVID-19 virus (SARS-2), have identified potential targets in their genomes that could help treat the virus in the futureAlthough the laboratory was closed during the epidemic, Ali Hosseini and Professor Alex McLellan, ph.Dstudents in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, worked from home to study new areas of COVID-19 pathogenesisMrHosseini, the first author of the study, said he hoped the work would help better understand how the virus escapes the host immune response and help develop a vaccine against the virusphoto source: NIAID-RML researchers began working on microRNA (miRNA) skills they acquired from research ingressing cancer-fighting CAR T cells to examine previously unrecognized weaknesses in the SARS-2 genome that could be used to destroy viruses or help create new vaccinesThese weaknesses invirus are the target sedituated by host miRNA identificationhost miRNA is a nucleic acid-based "immune system" that works in all cells of our bodymiRNAs is key to controlling gene expression in cells and is an important role in identifying and destroying virusesin patients with cardiovascular complications or respiratory viral infections, a target of SARS-2 matches a rich miRNA (miR197)the miR197 binding site on SARS-2 has mutated nearly 40 times since Marchthis mutation now appears in more than 75% of the global isolates of SARS-2Professor McLellan said: "Patients with cardiovascular complications have been shown to be at risk of CONTRACT-19our study suggests that these patients' normal defense pathways may be blocked because of mutations in the virus", however, he said it was too early to say whether the mutation would help the virus or whether it did not give it an advantage "We need direct experimental methods using live viruses and further research into the spread of this mutant around the world," even , the frequency of the miR197 target site mutation is surprising in different SARS-2 isolates our study just says: Let's look at these sites and see what happens in the future " the study's lead author, Hosseini, said that because many miRNAs are different between species, the new "zoonotic" SARS-CoV-2 could face the iconic human miRNA attack, which has not been experienced before in bats scientists say their findings also open up the possibility of engineering at artificial miRNA sites this may help weaken the virus used in vaccine research and has been successfully tested in other respiratory virus trials this strategy against the SARS-2 virus could help global vaccine efforts the study was recently peer-reviewed and published this week in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences () References: Researchers identify ian e immune targets in THE SARS-CoV-2 Genome Ali Hosseini Rad SM et al Implications of SARS-CoV-2 Mutations for The RAndA Structure and Host Micro TargetRNA, International of The Journal Of The SIArS .2020) DOI: 10.3390/ijms21134807