The human gammaherpesvirus Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus is strongly linked to neoplasms of endothelial and B-cell origin. The majority of tumor cells in these malignancies are latently infected, and latency genes are consequently thought to play a critical role in virus-induced tumorigenesis. One such factor is kshv-miR-K12-11, a viral microRNA that is constitutively expressed in cell lines derived from KSHV-associated tumors, and that shares perfect homology of its seed sequence with the cellular miR-155.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Mechanical overload leads to cardiac hypertrophy and mechanical unloading to cardiac atrophy. Both conditions produce similar transcriptional changes including a re-expression of fetal genes, despite obvious differences in phenotype. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are discussed as superordinate regulators of global gene networks acting mainly at the translational level.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNAs which posttranscriptionally regulate gene expression. The current release of the miRNA registry lists 16 viruses which encode a total of 146 miRNA hairpins. Strikingly, 139 of these are encoded by members of the herpesvirus family, suggesting an important role for miRNAs in the herpesvirus life cycle.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfection of mice with murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV-68) provides a valuable animal model for gamma-2 herpesvirus (rhadinovirus) infection and pathogenesis. The MHV-68 orf73 protein has been shown to be required for the establishment of viral latency in vivo. This study describes a novel transcriptional activation function of the MHV-68 orf73 protein and identifies the cellular bromodomain containing BET proteins Brd2/RING3, Brd3/ORFX, and BRD4 as interaction partners for the MHV-68 orf73 protein.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) latency-associated nuclear antigen 1 (LANA-1) is required for the replication of episomal viral genomes. Regions in its N-terminal and C-terminal domains mediate the interaction with host cell chromatin. Several cellular nuclear proteins, e.
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