MiR-301a-3p in the pathogenesis of bacterial meningitis by targeting Cx43

Gap junction (GJ) is concerned with cell growth, differentiation, immune response, as well as many physiological and pathological processes. Cx43, as an important GJ protein, is associated with a variety of diseases. This study investigated the effect of miR-301a-3p in bacterial meningitis by targeting the Cx43 gene. The negative correlation between Cx43 and miR-301a-3p was because of the abnormal expression of related genes. MiR-301a-3p agomir was transfected into astrocytes for higher expression; CCK8 assay and flow cytometry showed that the high expression of miR-301a-3p would inhibit apoptosis and induces proliferation of astrocytes, whereas miR-301a-3p antagomir would inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis. Bioinformatics analysis showed that Cx43 was the target gene of miR-301a-3p, and dual-luciferase assay and experiments repeated showed that miR-301a-3p regulated the expression of Cx43 on the 3′-untranslated region seed region. Therefore, miR-301a-3p played a biological role in the development of bacterial meningitis by regulating the expression of the target gene Cx43.