MicroRNA-939 restricts Hepatitis B virus by targeting Jmjd3-mediated and C/EBPα-coordinated chromatin remodeling

Cuncun Chen, Min Wu, Wen Zhang, Wei Lu, Min Zhang, Zhanqing Zhang, Xiaonan Zhang, Zhenghong Yuan

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23 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Multi-layered mechanisms of virus host interaction exist for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, which have been typically manifested at the microRNA level. Our previous study suggested that miRNA-939 (miR-939) may play a potential role in regulating HBV replication. Here we further investigated the mechanism by which miR-939 regulates HBV life cycle. We found that miR-939 inhibited the abundance of viral RNAs without direct miRNA-mRNA base pairing, but via host factors. Expression profiling and functional validation identified Jmjd3 as a target responsible for miR-939 induced anti-HBV effect. Jmjd3 appeared to enhance the transcription efficiency of HBV enhancer II/core promoter (En II) in a C/EBPα-dependent manner. However, the demethylase activity of Jmjd3 was not required in this process. Rather, Jmjd3's transactivation activity depended on its interaction with C/EBPα. This coordinated action further recruited the Brm containing SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex which promoted the transcription of HBV RNAs. Taken together, we propose that the miR-939-Jmjd3 axis perturbs the accessibility of En II promoter to essential nuclear factors (C/EBPα and SWI/SNF complex) therefore leading to compromised viral RNA synthesis and hence restricted viral multiplication.

Original languageEnglish
Article number35974
Pages (from-to)1-15
Number of pages15
JournalScientific Reports
Volume6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Oct 2016
Externally publishedYes

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