الفهرس 
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Abstract
The value of miRNAs as therapeutic targets is now widely recognised. Within 10 years, slightly more than 1,000 human unique miRNAs have been discovered and await utility in clinical applications. For many of these, extensive investigations ex vivo suggest therapeutic opportunities in areas of unmet medical need; some of these have already been validated in clinically-relevant animal models, and a few are in (pre) clinical development.
It is increasingly evident that miRNAs play a novel and important role in regulation of gene expression. In recent years, research focusing on small molecules such as miRNAs has intensified to understand their role in health and disease. The excitement of exploring their regulatory potential will remain for years to come, given the observation that miRNAs could be ideal therapeutic targets for many diseases. We are at the beginning of understanding of the diverse roles of miRNAs in fine tuning biological pathways, and in future years we will have a better picture of this complex regulatory mechanism. Presently, there is need for miRNAs-based diagnostics and gene therapy; however, these techniques are in their infancy.
miRNAs play a remarkable role in regulating gene expression in both normal cellular processes and in viral infection.Viruses have evolved mechanisms to manipulate and subvert the host gene machinery by modifying both the gene expression and its regulatory machinery including miRNAs. HCV, particularly, appears to be influenced by the host cellular miRNA machinery to benefit its own replicative cycle- a classic example being miR-122, which is highly enriched in liver cells where it has been shown tobe involved in the pathophysiology of HCV infection. MicroRNA-122 has also been tested in therapeutic clinical trials to treat HCV-infected chimpanzees or human.