Endogenous pancreatic microRNAs differentially target the Delta, Omicron, and Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 genomes to upregulate the Diabetes-associated genes

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 viral genome is mutating and evolving into new variations, including the recently discovered Delta and Omicron. In this study, we used and evaluated our notion of differential targeting of SARS-CoV-2 variant genomes by microRNAs (miRNAs) of the infected human pancreas. We found that even with UTR mutations, the Delta, Omicron, and original Wuhan variations genomes would be differentially targeted by the host pancreas cells native miRNAs in the same way. The miRNAs show a difference in Minimal Free Energy (MFE) with the different viral variants genomes; however, they would still be responsible for the upregulation of the diabetes-associated genes.