microRNAs in West Nile Virus-Infected Mice

To determine whether miRNAs play a role in West Nile virus (WNV) neuropathogenesis, we evaluated WNV-infected mice brains for the expression profile of miRNAs, their potential functions and their correlation with genes involved in inflammatory pathways. Our data demonstrate that WNV infection modulates miRNAs expression. Biofunctional analysis demonstrated that these miRNAs and their target genes regulated the pathways important for WNV pathogenesis. Moreover, we demonstrated an inverse correlation between WNV-modulated miRNAs and neuroinflammatory genes induced by WNV infection in mice brains. Collectively, these data suggested that miRNAs regulate downstream gene expression, important in WNV neuroinvasive disease, and can be targeted in the future to develop therapeutics.

Kumar M, Nerurkar VR. Integrated analysis of microRNAs and their disease related targets in the brain of mice infected with West Nile virus. Virology 2014;452;143-151. PMCID: PMC3959158 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24606691