MicroRNA-206 inhibits HCV proliferation through depressing ACC1 lipid synthesis signalling pathway

MicroRNAs are considered to play important roles in cell biological and pathological progress. microRNA-206 (miR-206) was reported to participate in lipogenesis, and lipid droplets were necessary for the life cycle of HCV proliferation. Whether miR-206 was associated with HCV proliferation and the potential mechanism are not clear. In this study, we firstly identified that miR-206 could inhibit HCV proliferation at the RNA and protein level. Bioinformatical prediction of target genes binding to miR-206 was performed to investigate whether inhibiting function was due to a lipogenesis pathway. Then, the acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1 (ACC1) gene was selected as target gene of miR-206. The dual-luciferase reporter assay results showed that luciferase significantly decreased in cells transfected with 3 '-UTR of the ACC1 gene and miR-206. The RNA and protein levels of the ACC1 gene and its pathway genes were significantly lower in cells transfected with miR-206 than in controls. Furthermore, the lipid droplet numbers also significantly decreased in cells transfected with miR-206. In conclusion, miR-206 could inhibit HCV proliferation through depressing ACC1 lipogenesis pathway and decreasing the lipid droplet numbers. miR-206 might be used as anti-HCV biochemical drug in the future.