**6. Other herpesviridae viral miRNAs**

The herpes simplex virus 1 and 2 discussed mainly in this chapter are also termed as human herpesvirus (HHV)-1 and 2. The other members of the

*herpesviridae* family of viruses include the Varicella zoster virus (VZV) or HHV-3, the Epstein Barr virus (EBV) or HHV-4, the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) or HHV-5, the Roseoloviruses HHV-6 and HHV-7, and the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) or HHV-8 [61]. A common characteristic of the herpesviruses is that all the members are capable of establishing latent infections in their hosts and reactivate when the immune system has been compromised. Herpesvirus reactivation brings about changes in the host signaling pathways with the help of alterations in the miRNA expression [62]. VZV is a neurotropic virus that causes chickenpox in humans. Although there are not many reports on VZV v-miRNAs, nearly 20 miRNAs have been predicted from the VZV genome and some of these miRNAs have been shown to be involved in viral replication [63, 64]. EBV, the first human oncovirus reported to encode viral miRNAs and cause various cancers such as nasopharyngeal carcinoma and Burkitt's lymphoma, encodes 44 miRNAs. The EBV miRNAs target the viral as well as the host mRNAs to regulate carcinogenesis and cellular transformation of the EBV-associated cancers [65]. HCMV, which allows extensive replication in the endothelial as well as the epithelial cells and has a large dsDNA genome of 230 bp, encodes 22 miRNAs [66, 67]. KSHV, a gamma herpesvirus and the causative agent of Kaposi's sarcoma, encodes 25 miRNAs. The family also contains HHV-6 and HHV-7, which are the lesser explored members. A single miRNA, miR-U86, encoded by HHV-6A has been reported to target the expression of the U86 gene which is an IE gene of HHV-6A [68]. Therefore, apart from HSV-1 and HSV-2, the other members of the herpesviridae family also encode a number of miRNAs to regulate their infection cycles in the host. Owing to similarities amongst them, investigations pertaining to one will provide insights regarding the other. Here, we discuss some of the miRNA effector functions that are employed during other herpesvirus infections.
