Abstract
Viruses represent one of the main factors that cause normal cells to proliferate and to become malignant: up to 15% of all human cancers are associated with single or multiple virus infections, and several viruses have been recognized as causal agents of specific types of cancer. Viruses have evolved many strategies to prevent infected cells from becoming apoptotic and to evade the innate and adaptive immune responses of their hosts. The recent discovery that Epstein–Barr virus and other herpesviruses produce their own sets of micro (mi)RNAs brings an additional layer of complexity in this ongoing host–virus arms race and changes our initial views of the antiviral roles of RNA silencing in plants and insects. It seems that, rather than being inhibited by this process, many mammalian viruses can usurp or divert the host RNA silencing machinery to their advantage. Viral-encoded miRNAs can act both in cis, to ensure accurate expression of viral genomes, and in trans, to modify the expression of host transcripts. Here, we review the current knowledge on viral miRNAs and discuss how mammalian viruses can also perturb host miRNA expression. Those recent findings provide new insights into the role of viruses and miRNAs in cancer development.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 50 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $5.18 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahuja D, Saenz-Robles MT, Pipas JM . (2005). Oncogene 24: 7729–7745.
Andersson MG, Haasnoot PC, Xu N, Berenjian S, Berkhout B, Akusjarvi G . (2005). J Virol 79: 9556–9565.
Aparicio O, Razquin N, Zaratiegui M, Narvaiza I, Fortes P . (2006). J Virol 80: 1376–1384.
Bergmann M, Garcia-Sastre A, Carnero E, Pehamberger H, Wolff K, Palese P et al. (2000). J Virol 74: 6203–6206.
Bucher E, Hemmes H, de Haan P, Goldbach R, Prins M . (2004). J Gen Virol 85: 983–991.
Cai X, Hagedorn CH, Cullen BR . (2004). RNA 10: 1957–1966.
Cai X, Lu S, Zhang Z, Gonzalez CM, Damania B, Cullen BR . (2005). Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102: 5570–5575.
Cai X, Schafer A, Lu S, Bilello JP, Desrosiers RC, Edwards R et al. (2006). PLoS Pathog 2: e23.
Chapman EJ, Prokhnevsky AI, Gopinath K, Dolja VV, Carrington JC . (2004). Genes Dev 18: 1179–1186.
Cory S, Huang DC, Adams JM . (2003). Oncogene 22: 8590–8607.
Cui C, Griffiths A, Li G, Silva LM, Kramer MF, Gaasterland T et al. (2006). J Virol 80: 5499–5508.
Cullen BR . (2006). Nat Immunol 7: 563–567.
Deleris A, Gallego-Bartolome J, Bao J, Kasschau KD, Carrington JC, Voinnet O . (2006). Science 313: 68–71.
Ding SW, Li H, Lu R, Li F, Li WX . (2004). Virus Res 102: 109–115.
Dunn W, Trang P, Zhong Q, Yang E, van Belle C, Liu F . (2005). Cell Microbiol 7: 1684–1695.
Dunoyer P, Lecellier CH, Parizotto EA, Himber C, Voinnet O . (2004). Plant Cell 16: 1235–1250.
Galiana-Arnoux D, Dostert C, Schneemann A, Hoffmann JA, Imler JL . (2006). Nat Immunol 7: 590–597.
Gottwein E, Cai X, Cullen BR . (2006). J Virol 80: 5321–5326.
Grey F, Antoniewicz A, Allen E, Saugstad J, McShea A, Carrington JC et al. (2005). J Virol 79: 12095–12099.
Grimm D, Streetz KL, Jopling CL, Storm TA, Pandey K, Davis CR et al. (2006). Nature 441: 537–541.
Grundhoff A, Sullivan CS, Ganem D . (2006). RNA 12: 733–750.
Gupta A, Gartner JJ, Sethupathy P, Hatzigeorgiou AG, Fraser NW . (2006). Nature 442: 82–85.
Hamilton AJ, Baulcombe DC . (1999). Science 286: 950–952.
He L, Thomson JM, Hemann MT, Hernando-Monge E, Mu D, Goodson S et al. (2005). Nature 435: 828–833.
Johnson SM, Lin SY, Slack FJ . (2003). Dev Biol 259: 364–379.
Jopling CL, Yi M, Lancaster AM, Lemon SM, Sarnow P . (2005). Science 309: 1577–1581.
Khalili K, Del Valle L, Otte J, Weaver M, Gordon J . (2003). Oncogene 22: 5181–5191.
Kieff E, Rickinson AB . (2001). Epstein-Barr virus and its replication. In: Fields BN, Knipe DM, Howley PM, Griffin DE, Lamb RA, Martin MA, Roizman B and Straus SE (eds). Fields Virology, Vol. 2, Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins: Philadelphia, pp. 2511–2551.
Kliche S, Nagel W, Kremmer E, Atzler C, Ege A, Knorr T et al. (2001). Mol Cell 7: 833–843.
Lakatos L, Csorba T, Pantaleo V, Chapman EJ, Carrington JC, Liu YP et al. (2006). EMBO J 25: 2768–2780.
Lecellier CH, Dunoyer P, Arar K, Lehmann-Che J, Eyquem S, Himber C et al. (2005). Science 308: 557–560.
Lee Y, Ahn C, Han J, Choi H, Kim J, Yim J et al. (2003). Nature 425: 415–419.
Lee Y, Kim M, Han J, Yeom KH, Lee S, Baek SH et al. (2004). EMBO J 23: 4051–4060.
Li WX, Li H, Lu R, Li F, Dus M, Atkinson P et al. (2004). Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101: 1350–1355.
Lu S, Cullen BR . (2004). J Virol 78: 12868–12876.
Macrae AI, Dutia BM, Milligan S, Brownstein DG, Allen DJ, Mistrikova J et al. (2001). J Virol 75: 5315–5327.
Mallory AC, Reinhart BJ, Bartel D, Vance VB, Bowman LH . (2002). Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99: 15228–15233.
Merai Z, Kerenyi Z, Kertesz S, Magna M, Lakatos L, Silhavy D . (2006). J Virol 80: 5747–5756.
Moore PS, Chang Y . (2001). In: Fields BN, Knipe DM, Howley PM, Griffin DE, Lamb RA, Martin MA, Roizman B and Straus SE (Eds). Fields Virology Vol. 2, Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins: Philadelphia, pp. 2803–2833.
Navarro L, Dunoyer P, Jay F, Arnold B, Dharmasiri N, Estelle M et al. (2006). Science 312: 436–439.
O'Donnell KA, Wentzel EA, Zeller KI, Dang CV, Mendell JT . (2005). Nature 435: 839–843.
Obbard DJ, Jiggins FM, Halligan DL, Little TJ . (2006). Curr Biol 16: 580–585.
Pearce M, Matsumura S, Wilson AC . (2005). J Virol 79: 14457–14464.
Pfeffer S, Sewer A, Lagos-Quintana M, Sheridan R, Sander C, Grasser FA et al. (2005). Nat Methods 2: 269–276.
Pfeffer S, Zavolan M, Grasser FA, Chien M, Russo JJ, Ju J et al. (2004). Science 304: 734–736.
Rickinson A, Kieff E . (2001). In: Fields BN, Knipe DM, Howley PM, Griffin DE, Lamb RA, Martin MA, Roizman B and Straus SE (Eds). Fields Virology, Vol. 2, Lippincott: Williams & Wilkins: Philadelphia, pp. 2575–2627.
Sadler R, Wu L, Forghani B, Renne R, Zhong W, Herndier B et al. (1999). J Virol 73: 5722–5730.
Samols MA, Hu J, Skalsky RL, Renne R . (2005). J Virol 79: 9301–9305.
Sano M, Kato Y, Taira K . (2006). FEBS Lett 580: 1553–1564.
Skaletskaya A, Bartle LM, Chittenden T, McCormick AL, Mocarski ES, Goldmacher VS . (2001). Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98: 7829–7834.
Soderberg-Naucler C . (2006). J Intern Med 259: 219–246.
Soussi T, Lozano G . (2005). Biochem Biophys Res Commun 331: 834–842.
Speck SH, Virgin HW . (1999). Curr Opin Microbiol 2: 403–409.
Sullivan CS, Ganem D . (2005). Mol Cell 20: 3–7.
Sullivan CS, Grundhoff AT, Tevethia S, Pipas JM, Ganem D . (2005). Nature 435: 682–686.
Taub R, Kirsch I, Morton C, Lenoir G, Swan D, Tronick S et al. (1982). Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 79: 7837–7841.
Tognon M, Corallini A, Martini F, Negrini M, Barbanti-Brodano G . (2003). Oncogene 22: 5192–5200.
Vargason JM, Szittya G, Burgyan J, Hall TM . (2003). Cell 115: 799–811.
Voinnet O . (2005). Nat Rev Genet 6: 206–220.
Wang XH, Aliyari R, Li WX, Li HW, Kim K, Carthew R et al. (2006). Science 312: 452–454.
Watanabe T, Takeda A, Tsukiyama T, Mise K, Okuno T, Sasaki H et al. (2006). Genes Dev 20: 1732–1743.
Xiang Y, Condit RC, Vijaysri S, Jacobs B, Williams BR, Silverman RH . (2002). J Virol 76: 5251–5259.
Yang W, Chendrimada TP, Wang Q, Higuchi M, Seeburg PH, Shiekhattar R et al. (2006). Nat Struct Mol Biol 13: 13–21.
Ye K, Malinina L, Patel DJ . (2003). Nature 426: 874–878.
Yeung ML, Bennasser Y, Myers T, Jiang G, Benkirane M, Jeang KT . (2005). Retrovirology 2: 81.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pfeffer, S., Voinnet, O. Viruses, microRNAs and cancer. Oncogene 25, 6211–6219 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1209915
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1209915
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Human alpha and beta herpesviruses and cancer: passengers or foes?
Folia Microbiologica (2020)
-
ToGo-WF: prediction of RNA tertiary structures and RNA–RNA/protein interactions using the KNIME workflow
Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design (2019)
-
RNA-binding protein immunoprecipitation as a tool to investigate plant miRNA processing interference by regulatory proteins of diverse origin
Plant Methods (2018)
-
miR-498 promotes cell proliferation and inhibits cell apoptosis in retinoblastoma by directly targeting CCPG1
Child's Nervous System (2018)
-
Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of MicroRNA in Viral Diseases
Molecular Diagnosis & Therapy (2017)