Research Projects

Rotavirus is the leading etiology of acute gastroenteritis in children under 5 years of age worldwide, causing high mortality, especially in middle- and low-income countries. India accounts for 22% of the total global rotavirus mortality. In India, 40% of all diarrhea-related hospitalizations among children under 5 years of age is caused by group A rotavirus. Despite the introduction of rotavirus vaccines a decade ago, it still causes 20000 deaths annually worldwide. In addition to vaccines, there are no available FDA approved drugs for the treatment of rotaviral diarrhea. An urgent need of the hour is to explore the new avenue of host-rotavirus interaction for designing anti-rotaviral therapeutics. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), a subset of non-coding RNAs greater than 200 nucleotides in length, have recently been described as critical regulators in viral infections. Accumulating research indicates that lncRNAs can have both positive and negative effects on viral infection. In addition to use as unique biomarker for virus infection, lncRNAs may be a novel target against which new antiviral therapeutics can be developed. The role of lncRNA in the regulation of rotavirus infection has not been addressed yet. Therefore, in the present study we aim to identify rotavirus induced dysregulated lncRNAs and also explore their mechanism of actions in positive or negative regulation of rotavirus infection.