NcRNAs and the SARS-Cov 2 virus infection
In collaboration with the Department for Hygiene and Microbiology (Prof. D. Wilflingseder and Prof. W. Posch) we are interested to investigate the ncRNA transcriptome of lung epithelia cells infected with several different variants of the SARS-Cov2 virus (e.g. delta versus omicron variants). To that end, total RNA was prepared from non-infected and virus infected lung epithelial cells and an RNAseq analysis of the small ncRNA transcriptome of cellular ncRNAs or ncRNAs from the virus was analyzed. Since ncRNAs have been shown in the past by our and other groups to act as “genetic switches”, able to regulate the expression of protein coding genes, we want to identify regulatory pathways from the infected cell as well as from the SARS-Cov2 virus which govern infection. This might aid to identify novel therapeutic targets to treat viral infection by SARS-Cov2.
