Non-coding RNAs in Viral Infections: Implications for Disease Diagnosis and Treatment

Viral infections are known to impose huge socioeconomic losses worldwide. The recent years have witnessed a series of epidemics and pandemics caused by different emerging and reemerging viruses that caused massive mortality and affected the lives of billions. It, thus, becomes necessary to ramp up the preparedness to combat and control the unprecedented situations following such viral outbreaks. Efficient preparedness relies on availability of efficient diagnostic, therapeutic or prophylactic capacities. Towards this, virus biology, pathogenesis and virus-host interactions must be thoroughly known. However, in cases of mutated strains or novel viruses, it is difficult to do so immediately and hence, alternative strategies must be explored. Advances in genomics technologies have uncovered the potential of molecular agents in disease biology. Enough evidence has been generated that strongly indicates regulatory roles of non-coding RNAs during viral infections. Non-coding RNAs have emerged as interesting diagnostic agents and therapeutic candidates. Owing to the capability of turning "on" or "off" the viral replication process, miRNAs have been regarded as direct switches of modulating viral infections. Also, long non-coding RNAs (IncRNAs) via interferon dependent or independent signaling have been crucial regulators of viral disease outcomes. Circular RNA is another type of non-coding RNAs with roles in viral infections. Identification of the non-coding RNA regulators can enable to combat challenges in management of viral infections. Such essential knowledge can be beneficial to identify specific or broad-spectrum molecular targets for development of novel prophylactics, therapeutics or diagnostics.