Title:A Review of miRNA Regulation in Japanese Encephalitis (JEV) Virus
Infection
Volume: 25
Issue: 5
Author(s): Maneesh Kumar, Ganesh Chandra Sahoo*, Vidya Nand Rabi Das, Kamal Singh and Krishna Pandey
Affiliation:
- Department of Virology, ICMR-Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, 800007, Bihar,
India
Keywords:
Neurotropic, japanese encephalitis virus, miRNA, RNA interference, inflammation, viral pathogenicity.
Abstract: Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a mosquito-borne disease that causes neuronal damage
and inflammation of microglia, and in severe cases, it can be fatal. JE infection can resist cellular
immune responses and survive in host cells. Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infects macrophages
and peripheral blood lymphocytes. In addition to regulating biological signaling pathways,
microRNAs in cells also influence virus-host interactions. Under certain circumstances,
viruses can change microRNA production. These changes affect the replication and spread of the
virus. Host miRNAs can contain viral pathogenicity by downregulating the antiviral immune
response pathways. Simultaneous profiling of miRNA and messenger RNA (mRNA) could help
us detect pathogenic factors, and dual RNA detection is possible. This work highlights important
miRNAs involved in human JE infection. In this study, we have shown the important miRNAs
that play significant roles in JEV infection. We found that during JEV infection, miRNA-155,
miRNA-29b, miRNA-15b, miRNA-146a, miRNA-125b-5p, miRNA-30la, miRNA-19b-3p, and
miRNA-124, cause upregulation of human genes whereas miRNA-432, miRNA-370, miRNA-
33a-5p, and miRNA-466d-3p are responsible for downregulation of human genes respectively.
Further, these miRNAs are also responsible for the inflammatory effects. Although several other
miRNAs critical to the JEV life cycle are yet unknown, there is currently no evidence for the role
of miRNAs in persistence.