They found an RNA molecule capable of inhibiting the reproduction of the coronavirus – Diseases

Russian molecular biologists have discovered in human and mouse cells an RNA molecule capable of binding to particles of various types of coronavirus and slowing down their reproduction, reports BTA.

Stepan Nerisyan, a junior researcher at the National Research University in Moscow, said the team had discovered the microRNA particle miR-21, which is capable of binding to all human coronaviruses.

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The virus is believed to use it to slow its replication in the early stages of infection to delay the body’s active immune response. The cells of humans and other living things produce large amounts of short strands of RNA. They flexibly control the activity of one gene or another by binding to so-called template RNA, a kind of “working copy” of certain sections of DNA, which cells use as models for protein composition. Artificial copies of such miRNAs are actively used in experiments today and are considered one of the possible ways to fight cancer and other diseases.

Nerisyan’s team was able to isolate four miRNA families that bind to all coronaviruses found in humans. In experiments with mice, it was found that when infected with SARS, the concentration of these mir-21-3p molecules was eight times higher in the lung cells of diseased rodents. With them, the pathogen tends to be less noticeable by the acute immune response in the early stages of infection, when it can be easily destroyed.

Scientists can take advantage of this characteristic of the coronavirus artificially by increasing the concentration of miR-21-3p molecules in the patient’s body or by blocking their production.