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Updated: Mar 21, 2026

MicroRNA-based Regulation of Picornavirus Tropism
Published on: February 6, 2017
Efficient inhibition of human immunodeficiency virus replication using novel modified microRNA-30a targeting
Ahmad Nejati1, Shohreh Shahmahmoodi1, Ehsan Arefian2
1Virology Department, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 14716-13151, Iran.
Abstract:
RNA interference (RNAi)-based gene therapy is currently considered to be a combinatorial anti-human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) therapy. Although artificial polycistronic microRNAs (miRs) can reduce HIV-1 escape mutant variants, this approach may increase the risk of side effects. The present study aimed to optimize the efficiency of anti-HIV RNAi gene therapy in order to reduce the cell toxicity induced by multi-short hairpin RNA expression. An artificial miR-30a-3'-untranslated region (miR-3-UTR) obtained from a single RNA polymerase II was used to simultaneously target all viral transcripts. The results of the present study demonstrated that HIV-1 replication was significantly inhibited in the cells with the miR-3-UTR construct, suggesting that miR-3'-UTR may serve as a promising tool for RNAi-based gene therapy in the treatment of HIV-1.
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