Screening out microRNAs and Their Molecular Pathways with a Potential Role in the Regulation of Parvovirus B19 Infection Through In Silico Analysis

Parvovirus B19 (B19V) infection in healthy individuals is commonly asymptomatic or has non-specific symptoms, such as fever, headache, chills, myalgia, rash, and arthralgia. However, some groups of individuals, such as pregnant women, patients with hemolytic disorders, and immunocompromised individuals, may present severe forms of the infection, which may even lead to a negative outcome. To better understand what leads to this divergence of outcomes in different populational groups, this study sought to analyze the role of miRNAs in the pathogenesis of B19V infection. The miRNAs that potentially bind to the B19V transcripts were identified using complete genomic sequences retrieved from Genbank and miRNAs cataloged in miRbase. The results of this alignment between the seed region of the miRNAs with the B19V complete genome identified 1517 miRNAs that showed 100% identity, of which 412 are bound to NS1, VP1, and VP2 transcripts. Based on the number of total binds to the genome, these miRNAs were ranked, and the top five, miR-4799-5p, miR-5690, miR-335-3p, miR-193b-5p, and miR-6771-3p, were selected to evaluate the target genes and signaling pathways in which they act. We identified 214 common genes among the top five miRNAs, and five of these genes bind to at least two of these miRNAs. Based on WikiPathways and KEGG, these 214 genes act on 29 statistically significant pathways, and the three main pathways were selected. Our results revealed some miRNAs that may be involved in regulating B19V replication and that can act as potential biomarkers for the prognosis of infection.