Dysregulated miR-3959-3p in response to Lumpy skin disease virus

Lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV), a member of the Capripoxvirus genus, causes substantial economic losses in the livestock industry and is rapidly spreading among various LSDV-free countries across the globe. Viral infections are known to alter the cellular miRNA expression profile of the host significantly.Besides being important biomarker candidates, circulating miRNAs have a significant role in controlling viral infection and antiviral immune responses, including several molecular mechanisms. miR-3959-3p, a significantly downregulated miRNA revealed in RNA-sequencing results of LSDV-infected LT cells, was selected to bedetected in the serum of LSDV-infected and uninfected cattle sera (40 LSDV-infected and 40 LSDV-uninfected). We optimized quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) for quantitative determination of miR-3959-3p in the bovine sera samples. The level of miR-3959-3p appears to be towards lower side in the LSDV-infected as compared to the uninfected animals. However, no significant correlation could be established between the two groups due to fluctuations in the miRNA levels in both groups. This is the first report on the detection of circulating miRNA in LSDV-infected cattle sera.The dysregulation pattern of miR-3959-3p appears to suggest that several other miRNAs need to be explored and may serve as biomarkers for LSDV infection. However, this needs further investigation by screening several other miRNAs and on large number of LSDV positive and negative animals. Author summaryMicroRNAs are the key regulators of viral infections. However, in LSDVinfection the miRNA response is greatly unknown. In this study, miRNA expression in Vero cell linepost LSDV infection was studied for the first time. One of the miRNAs identified in the RNA-sequencing results i.emiR-3959-3p, was shown to be downregulated LSDV infection. We detected the levels of mir-3959-3p in sera of LSDV-infected and uninfected cattle to explore its potential as a biomarker.