Increased serum microRNA-29b expression and bad recovery in Japanese encephalitis virus infected patients; A new component to improve the disease recovery.

Background: Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a neurotropic mosquito-borne Flavivirus, mainly prevalent in Asia. It is the most important causative agent of acute viral encephalitis in humans. Recently, micro RNAs are discovered as a key regulator of inflammatory and immune responses in various diseases including neurological and viral infections. Thus, this study was proposed to check whether changes in cellular miRNA expression due to JE virus infection, can be detected in circulation which would be helpful in diagnosis and treatment.

Methods: miRNAs (miR-29b and miR-146a) were analyzed in the serum of JEV infected patients using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).

Results: miR-146a was found significantly decreased (p = 0.0008) in JEV infected patients as compared to healthy controls whereas miR-29b was significantly increased (p = 0.001) in JEV patients recovered with neurological sequelae when compared to those recovered without sequelae.

Conclusion: In conclusion, miRNA can be measured in serum. Studying microRNAs will provide novel information and help us to identify the components that can serve as biomarkers and can lead to new discovery in controlling disease recovery.