Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34662705›Full record

ArticleBiochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular basis of disease2022

Sequence complementarity between human noncoding RNAs and SARS-CoV-2 genes: What are the implications for human health?

Rossella Talotta, Shervin Bahrami, Magdalena Janina Laska

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular basis of disease, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
0.7field-weighted citation impact, top 36% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 9 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Rossella TalottaDepartment of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Rheumatology Unit, AOU "Gaetano Martino", University of Messina, Messina, Italy. Electronic address: rtalotta@unime.it.
Shervin BahramiDepartment of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Magdalena Janina LaskaDepartment of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. Electronic address: laska@mbg.au.dk.
Aarhus University · DKUniversity of Messina · IT

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesTo investigate in silico the presence of nucleotide sequence complementarity between the RNA genome of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and human non-coding (nc)RNA genes.

methodsThe FASTA sequence (NC_045512.2) of each of the 11 SARS-CoV-2 isolate Wuhan-Hu-1 genes was retrieved from NCBI.nlm.nih.gov/gene and the Ensembl.org library interrogated for any base-pair match with human ncRNA genes. SARS-CoV-2 gene-matched human ncRNAs were screened for functional activity using bioinformatic analysis. Finally, associations between identified ncRNAs and human diseases were searched in GWAS databases.

resultsA total of 252 matches were found between the nucleotide sequence of SARS-CoV-2 genes and human ncRNAs. With the exception of two small nuclear RNAs, all of them were long non-coding (lnc)RNAs expressed mainly in testis and central nervous system under physiological conditions. The percentage of alignment ranged from 91.30% to 100% with a mean nucleotide alignment length of 17.5 ± 2.4. Thirty-three (13.09%) of them contained predicted R-loop forming sequences, but none of these intersected the complementary sequences of SARS-CoV-2. However, in 31 cases matches fell on ncRNA regulatory sites, whose adjacent coding genes are mostly involved in cancer, immunological and neurological pathways. Similarly, several polymorphic variants of detected non-coding genes have been associated with neuropsychiatric and proliferative disorders.

conclusionThis pivotal in silico study shows that SARS-CoV-2 genes have Watson-Crick nucleotide complementarity to human ncRNA sequences, potentially disrupting ncRNA epigenetic control of target genes. It remains to be elucidated whether this could result in the development of human disease in the long term.

Indexed as

Base SequenceCOVID-19Epigenesis, GeneticGenes, ViralHumansNeoplasmsRNA, Long NoncodingRNA, UntranslatedSARS-CoV-2Sequence AlignmentSequence Homology, Nucleic AcidRNA, Long NoncodingRNA, UntranslatedBioinformaticsCOVID-19EpigeneticsLong non-coding RNASARS-CoV-2Small nuclear RNA

Identifiers

PMID34662705
PMCPMC8518135
OpenAlexW3207956041

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.