Cellular microRNAs (miRNAs) play a key role in regulating the replication of rabies virus (RABV). To better understand the pathogenesis of RABV, we investigated the miRNAs expression in mice brain and spinal cord during RABV infection in the present study. The results showed the differential expression of 18 (12 up- and 6 down-regulation) and 5 (4 up- and 1 down-regulation) miRNAs with at least 3-fold change in the brain and spinal cord of GX01-infected mice, respectively. Eight miRNAs (7 up and 1 down-regulation) changed at least 3-fold in the brain of Flury-infected mice. Functional annotation of the differentially expressed miRNAs revealed that they are involved in immune response, biological process, apoptosis, and diseases (including cancer, long-term depression, vascular smooth muscle contraction, etc.). Three primary transcripts, miR-101c, miR-155-5p and miR-223-3p were selected for heterologous expression in BHK-21 cells after cloning into eukaryotic expression vector, pEGFP-C1, containing an eGFP marker. Our assays demonstrated that an increase in the N mRNA of RABV occurs in consistent with the up-regulated expression of the miRNAs, suggesting that these miRNAs are likely to be involved in promoting RABV transcription.

To Cite This Article: Pan Y, Xie LJ, Wei XK, Li XN, Liang JJ and Luo TR, 2019. Differential expression analysis of microRNA in the central nervous system of mouse infected with rabies virus. Pak Vet J, 39(1): 49-55. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2018.104