Role of micro-RNAs in regulation of lentiviral latency and persistence.

Small interfering RNAs have been demonstrated to serve as a molecular defence against numerous retroviruses in plants and insects and, more recently, in primates. With the recent findings of micro-RNAs (miRNAs) that seem to play a pivotal role in the survival of the host, we have explored the role of miRNAs in lentiviral (LV) replication. We have previously hypothesized that, at least in the case of lentivirus infection, small interfering RNAs are involved in the inhibition of these types of viruses by the formation of intramolecular triplex formation (triplexes) between the polypurine tracks sequences of LV provirus and miRNAs and blocking the viral replication at the preintegration complex levels, placing these viruses into a suspended latency.