Journal of General Virology, Vol 78, 2329-2333, Copyright © 1997 by Society for General Microbiology
Inhibition of influenza viral polymerases by minimal viral RNA decoys
G Luo, S Danetz and M Krystal
Department of Virology, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Wallingford, CT 06492-7660, USA. Guangxiang_Luo@ccmail.bms.com
All gene segments of influenza virus share a common feature at their
respective termini. Both the 5'- and 3'-terminal sequences are highly
conserved and possess partial inverted complementarity. This allows for the
formation of a double-stranded duplex, which plays a major role in
transcription, replication and packaging of the viral genome. In vitro
studies have shown that the viral polymerase binds to short RNA molecules
containing these termini. In this study, attempts were made to test whether
mini-RNA decoys containing either or both termini can inhibit the activity
of the viral polymerase in vivo. RNA molecules containing either the 5' or
the 3' noncoding sequences were unable to inhibit NS-CAT RNA replication,
while mini-RNA decoys consisting of both the 5' and 3' noncoding sequences
of vRNA or cRNA were able to efficiently inhibit the activity of the viral
polymerases expressed from vaccinia virus vectors.
