miRNA profiling of lumpy skin disease virus infected primary lamb testicle cells

Abstract In this study, miRNA profiling of cells infected with lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) was conducted for the first time. As compared to the mock-infected cells, LSDV-infected primary lamb testicle (LT) cells revealed dysregulation of 64, 85, and 85 miRNAs at 12 hours post-infection (hpi), 48 hpi and 72 hpi, respectively. While some of these miRNAs were found to be specifically dysregulated at a particular time point following LSDV infection, others were commonly dysregulated across all three time points. The analysis of the differentially expressed miRNA-mRNA interaction networks, Gene ontology analysis of the predicted targets and KEGG analysis of the highly enriched pathways revealed several cellular factors/pathways involved in protein/ion/enzyme binding, cell differentiation, movement of subcellular component, calcium reabsorption, aldosterone synthesis and secretion and, melanogenesis. Besides understanding virus replication, virus-host interactions and disease pathogenesis, these miRNAs and their cellular targets may serve as biomarkers as well as novel targets for therapeutic intervention against LSDV.