Abstract: The interaction between JEV and the host at the miRNAs level was preliminarily explored by studying the miRNAs expression profiles of primary neurons in mice infected with JEV. Total RNA of JEV-infected and uninfected primary neurons of the suckling mice was extracted individually by Trizol and then analyzed miRNA expression profiles by high-throughput sequencing analysis. Significantly differentially expressed miRNAs were selected for verification by real-time quantitative PCR. Through bioinformatics analysis, 26 miRNAs with significant expression differences were screened out, among which 18 miRNAs were up-regulated and 8 miRNAs were down-regulated. The results of quantitative real-time PCR of the JEV-E gene indicated that the expressions of mir-21a-3p mir-223-5p mir-147-3p mir-155-5p and mir-146a-5p could promote the expression of JEV-E gene in neurons, while the expression of mir-301a was just on the contrast. The expression of miRNAs in primary neurons could affect the replication of JEV. This study provided the theoretical basis and direction for further studies on the regulatory function of miRNAs in the mechanism of neural dysfunction induced by JEV.

Key words: Japanese encephalitis virus, primary neurons of the suckling mice, microRNAs