Review
Abstract
Avian influenza virus is a major cause of influenza all over the world. Influenza virus being a RNA virus shows high mutation rates, antigenic shift and drift. These phenomena contribute to ineffective chemotherapy against influenza viruses. Recent advances in the current therapy, drugs and vaccines are restricted with many factors such as toxicity, complexity, cost and resistance. New technologies particularly RNA interference (RNAi) mediated by microRNA (miRNA) have become more and more interesting and effective therapeutic entities to silence pathogenic gene products associated with viral infections. Today, RNAi technology is a leading technology in sequence specific therapeutics. The flexibility of miRNAs in function makes them good candidates for use in sequence specific therapeutics. Although, miRNAs have been shown to be useful in combating against viral infections, there are problems associated with miRNA prediction, designing and function. Following review focuses on avian influenza virus (H5N1), the role of miRNAs in its pathophysiology and the computational prediction of miRNAs as antiviral therapeutics.
Key words: Avian influenza, miRNA, sequence specific therapeutics.
Copyright © 2024 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0