COVID-19, a global pandemic caused by an RNA virus named SARS-CoV-2 has brought the world to a standstill in terms of infectivity, casualty, and commercial plummet. RNA viruses can encode microRNAs (miRNAs) capable of modulating host gene expression, and with that notion, we aimed to predict viral miRNA like sequences of MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, analyze sequence reciprocity and investigate SARS-CoV-2 encoded potential miRNA-human genes interaction using bioinformatics tools. In this study, we retrieved 206 SARS-CoV-2 genomes, executed phylogenetic analysis, and the selected reference genome (MT434792.1) exhibited about 99% similarities among the retrieved genomes. We predicted 402, 137, and 85 putative miRNAs of MERS-CoV (NC_019843.3), SARS-CoV (NC_004718.3), and SARS-CoV-2 (MT434792.1) genome, respectively. Sequence similarity was analyzed among 624 miRNAs which revealed that the predicted miRNAs of SARS-CoV-2 share a cluster with the clad of miRNAs from MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV. Only SARS-CoV-2 derived 85 miRNAs were encountered for target prediction and 29 viral miRNAs seemed to target 119 human genes. Moreover, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) analysis suggested the involvement of respective genes in various pathways and biological processes. Finally, we focused on eight putative miRNAs influencing 14 genes that are involved in the adaptive hypoxic response, neuroinvasion and hormonal regulation, and tumorigenic progression in patients with COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 encoded miRNAs may cause misexpression of some critical regulators and facilitate viral neuroinvasion, altered hormonal axis, and tumorigenic events in the human host. However, these propositions need validation from future studies.

COVID-19 是由一种名为 SARS-CoV-2 的 RNA 病毒引起的全球大流行病，已使世界在传染性、伤亡和商业暴跌方面陷入停滞。RNA 病毒可以编码能够调节宿主基因表达的 microRNA (miRNA)，基于这一概念，我们旨在预测 MERS-CoV、SARS-CoV 和 SARS-CoV-2 的病毒 miRNA 序列，分析序列互易性并研究 SARS- CoV-2 使用生物信息学工具编码潜在的 miRNA-人类基因相互作用。在这项研究中，我们检索了 206 个 SARS-CoV-2 基因组，进行了系统发育分析，选定的参考基因组 (MT434792.1) 在检索到的基因组之间表现出约 99% 的相似性。我们分别预测了 MERS-CoV (NC_019843.3)、SARS-CoV (NC_004718.3) 和 SARS-CoV-2 (MT434792.1) 基因组的 402、137 和 85 个推定的 miRNA。对 624 个 miRNA 进行了序列相似性分析，结果表明预测的 SARS-CoV-2 miRNA 与来自 MERS-CoV 和 SARS-CoV 的 miRNA 包层共享一个簇。只有 SARS-CoV-2 衍生的 85 种 miRNA 被用于目标预测，29 种病毒 miRNA 似乎靶向 119 个人类基因。此外，京都基因和基因组百科全书（KEGG）和基因本体论（GO）分析表明各个基因参与各种途径和生物过程。最后，我们重点关注影响 14 个基因的 8 个推定 miRNA，这些基因与 COVID-19 患者的适应性缺氧反应、神经侵袭和激素调节以及致瘤进展有关。SARS-CoV-2 编码的 miRNA 可能导致一些关键调节因子的错误表达，并促进病毒神经入侵、改变荷尔蒙轴、和人类宿主中的致瘤事件。然而，这些命题需要未来研究的验证。