Fig. 3
From: The roles of different microRNAs in the regulation of cholesterol in viral hepatitis
miR-122’s role in HCV. Liver-specific miR-122 binds to two sites in the 5′UTR of the HCV genome and increases its translation and replication. Direct effect, caused by miR-122 targeting of the HCV RNA; indirect impact, caused by downregulation of HMOX1, which has been shown to prevent HCV replication. HCV RNA abundance significantly decreased as a result of miR-122. When miR-122 binds to the HCV genome’s 5′ UTR, ribosome interaction with the viral RNA is improved. Putative effectors of miR-122-mediated metabolic regulation have been proposed to include AMP-activated protein kinase (APK) and circadian metabolic regulators of the PPAR family [86,87,88,89]