Volume 26, No 3, Mar 2016
ISSN: 1001-0602
EISSN: 1748-7838 2018
impact factor 17.848*
(Clarivate Analytics, 2019)
Volume 26 Issue 3, March 2016: 380-383
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
An Ebola virus-encoded microRNA-like fragment serves as a biomarker for early diagnosis of Ebola virus disease
Zeliang Chen1,3,*, Hongwei Liang2,*, Xi Chen2,*, Yuehua Ke1,3,*, Zhen Zhou2, Mingjuan Yang1,3, Ke Zen2, Ruifu Yang1,3,4, Chao Liu1,3 and Chen-Yu Zhang2
1Institute of Disease Control and Prevention, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing 100071, China
2State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, Jiangsu Engineering Research Center for MicroRNA Biology and Biotechnology, NJU Advanced Institute for Life Sciences (NAILS), School of life sciences, Nanjing University, 163 Xianlin Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210046, China
3China Mobile Laboratory Response Team for Ebola in Sierra Leone, Freetown 999127, Sierra Leone
4State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing 100071, China
Correspondence: Chen-Yu Zhang, E-mail: cyzhang@nju.edu.cn; Chao Liu, E-mail: liuchao9588@sina.com; Ruifu Yang,(ruifuyang@gmail.com)
Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a severe infectious disease caused by Ebola virus (EBOV) species1,2. EBOV caused an epidemic in West Africa in 2013-20151,2. Early diagnosis of EVD is not only essential for implementation of effective interventions but also critical for prevention of the spread of infection, especially in regions with fragile and underfunded health system2. However, diagnosing EVD at an early stage is difficult, because EBOV causes symptoms observed in many other infections, including malaria, typhoid fever and influenza3, and some patients even develop illness without specific signs or symptoms. Current diagnostic methods to detect viral RNA or antigen in suspected patients are only effective at the late stage of illness. Lack of early biomarkers has led to diagnostic delays in current massive EVD outbreak4 and international spread of EBOV5,6. Recent studies by us and others have demonstrated that microRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small non-coding RNAs produced by eukaryotic cells and viruses, are present in human blood and other body fluids in highly stable, cell-free forms7,8. Circulating miRNAs can serve as non-invasive biomarkers for the early diagnosis of various diseases, including viral diseases7,8,9,10. Because EBOV is a negative-sense RNA virus, whether EBOV can produce miRNAs or miRNA-like RNA fragments remains unknown. In this study, we predicted and tested putative miRNA-like fragments generated by EBOV in the serum of EVD patients.
10.1038/cr.2016.21
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