"vCircTrappist": behind this original name lies a tool that marks a turning point in virology research! Developed by PhD student Alexis Chasseur, a member of UNamur's Narilis Institute and now a member of the Karolinska Institute (Sweden), this tool enables the reliable, unbiased identification of circular RNAs generated by a wide range of pathogenic viruses, including herpes viruses, adenoviruses, retroviruses, leukemia viruses and influenza viruses.

ARN

"It's as if we've just discovered a new way for viruses to communicate and parasitize our cells. Understanding this mechanism means entering a new virus language", Alexis Chasseur simplifies.

"Based on new high-throughput RNA sequencing technologies, this circular RNA detection program captures a very large number of events, attesting to the circularization of RNAs produced by viruses," he details. While similar tools already exist in conventional cellular contexts, they focus solely on the detection of circular RNAs produced by conventional mechanisms, different from those of viruses. "vCircTrappist identifies any type of motif involved in RNA circularization and is adapted to the particularities of viral genomes. It thus enables us to discover a new landscape of gene expression by viruses", continues the researcher.

This breakthrough opens up new prospects for better understanding the role of these molecules in viral infections and could, ultimately, contribute to the development of new therapeutic strategies.

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Benoît Muylkens

The results obtained reveal that the production of circular RNAs is a widespread phenomenon in viruses, including those associated with cancerous pathologies. This study marks a turning point in our approach to molecular virology. It considerably expands the field of research into viral circular RNAs, which has hitherto been largely underexplored

Benoît Muylkens Professor at UNamur and member of the Narilis Institute, virologist and project coordinator

The study has just been published in PLOS Pathogens, a reference journal ranked Q1 in infectiology and virology, with an impact factor of 6.7 (JCR 2025).

Consult the study

Read more :

Find out more about the objectives of this project in the FNRS magazine of February 2023 (pages 38-39).

The authors of this article are: Alexis S. Chasseur, Maxime Bellefroid, Mathilde Galais, Meijiao Gong, Pierre Lombard, Sarah Mathieu, Amandine Pecquet, Estelle Plant, Camille Ponsard, Laure Vreux, Carlo Yague-Sanz, Benjamin G. Dewals, Nicolas A. Gillet, Benoît Muylkens, Carine M. Van Lint, Damien Coupeau

In search of new circular RNAs

This research, is part of the research project (PDR) funded by the FNRS since January 2023, entitled: "Identification and characterization of viral circular RNAs in cancers and cellular hyperproliferations induced by herpesviruses and lymphotropic retroviruses".

Thanks to close collaboration between the laboratories of Pr Carine Van Lint FNRS Research Director at ULB, Benjamin Dewals Professor at ULiège, Carlo Yague-Sanz, FNRS Scientific Collaborator at UNamur, and Nicolas Gillet, Director of the Department of Veterinary Medicine and member of UNamur's Narilis Institute, this consortium is focusing on the identification and understanding of novel viral circular RNAs and aims to characterize their involvement in viral replication and carcinogenesis.