• Fu M, Wang B, Chen X, He Z, Wang Y, Li X, Cao H, Zheng SJ. (2017) gga-miR-130b suppresses infectious bursal disease virus replication via targeting the viral genome and cellular SOCS5. Journal of Virology 92(1):e01646-17.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression post transcriptionally through silencing or degrading its targets, playing important roles in immune response. However, the role of miRNAs in host response against infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) infection is not clear. In this study, we show that the expression of a series of miRNAs was significantly altered in DF-1 cells after infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) infection. We found that gga-miR-130b inhibited IBDV replication via targeting the specific sequence of IBDV segment A and enhanced the expression of IFN-β by targeting Suppressors of Cytokine Signaling 5(SOCS5) in host cells. These findings indicate that gga-miR-130b-3p plays a crucial role in host defense against IBDV infection.Importance This work shows that gga-miR-130b suppresses IBDV replication via directly targeting the viral genome and cellular SOCS5, the negative regulator for type I interferon expression, revealing the mechanism underlying gga-miR-130-induced inhibition of IBDV replication. This information would be of great help to the understandings of how host cells combat pathogenic infection by self-encoded small RNA and further our knowledge of the role of MicroRNAs in cell response against viral infection.

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