Commentary

microRNAs in viral oncogenesis

Vinod Scaria^* and Vaibhav Jadhav

• * Corresponding author: Vinod Scaria vinods@igib.res.in

Author Affiliations

GN Ramachandran Knowledge Center for Genome Informatics, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, CSIR, Mall Road, Delhi, 110 007, India

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Retrovirology 2007, 4:82 doi:10.1186/1742-4690-4-82

Published: 24 November 2007

Abstract

MicroRNAs are a recently discovered class of small noncoding functional RNAs. These molecules mediate post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in a sequence specific manner. MicroRNAs are now known to be key players in a variety of biological processes and have been shown to be deregulated in a number of cancers. The discovery of viral encoded microRNAs, especially from a family of oncogenic viruses, has attracted immense attention towards the possibility of microRNAs as critical modulators of viral oncogenesis. The host-virus crosstalk mediated by microRNAs, messenger RNAs and proteins, is complex and involves the different cellular regulatory layers. In this commentary, we describe models of microRNA mediated viral oncogenesis.