{"doi":"10.17615/xdg1-ry92","title":"miR-122 Stimulates Hepatitis C Virus RNA Synthesis by Altering the Balance of Viral RNAs Engaged in Replication versus Translation","abstract":"The liver-specific microRNA, miR-122, stabilizes hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA genomes by recruiting host argonaute 2 (AGO2) to the 5′ end and preventing decay mediated by exonuclease Xrn1. However, HCV replication requires miR-122 in Xrn1-depleted cells, indicating additional function s. We show that miR-122 enhances HCV RNA levels by altering the fraction of HCV genomes available for RNA synthesis. Exogenous miR-122 increases viral RNA and protein levels in Xrn1-depleted cells, with enhanced RNA synthesis occurring before heightened protein synthesis. Inhibiting protein translation blocks miR-122-mediated increases in RNA synthesis, but independently enhances RNA synthesis by releasing ribosomes from viral genomes. Additionally, miR-122 reduces the fraction of viral genomes engaged in protein translation. Depleting AGO2 or PCBP2, which binds HCV RNA in competition with miR-122 and promotes translation, eliminates miR-122 stimulation of RNA synthesis. Thus, by displacing PCBP2, miR-122 reduces HCV genomes engaged in translation while increasing the fraction available for RNA synthesis.","journal":"UNC Libraries","year":2020,"id":126045,"datarank":0.16479184330021646,"base_score":1.0986122886681096,"endowment":1.0986122886681096,"self_citation_contribution":0.16479184330021646,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.16479184330021646,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9541,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":542863,"name":"Takahiro Masaki","orcid":"0000-0001-9857-3453","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":392102,"name":"Nathaniel J. Moorman","orcid":"0000-0003-4952-6858","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":392340,"name":"Takaji Wakita","orcid":"0000-0002-3701-2940","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":520808,"name":"You Li","orcid":"0000-0001-5458-6009","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":543880,"name":"Daisuke Yamane","orcid":"0000-0003-1592-9368","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":574017,"name":"Kyle C. Arend","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":415265,"name":"Stanley M. Lemon","orcid":"0000-0003-1450-806X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":415264,"name":"David R. McGivern","orcid":"0000-0003-3497-5087","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":392343,"name":"Takanobu Kato","orcid":"0000-0003-1620-1360","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:15:23.509897Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}