In contrast, when Vero cells were first challenged with DENV and then transfected independently with pEZX-MR03-miR-484, pEZX-MR03-miR-744, or the pEZX-MR01-control, there was a significant decrease in the percentage of infected cells (less than 50%) only for DENV-4 in the presence of miR-484 (Fig. 3E). Likewise, under these conditions, no change was observed in the number of DENV RNA copies, either in Vero culture supernatants (Fig. 3F) or in the infected cells (data not shown). To verify that both miR-484 and miR-744 indeed affect DENV replication, the level of NS1 expression was determined. DENV-2 NS1 expression was markedly suppressed by miR-484 overexpression, and though the effect of miR-744 overexpression was more modest, NS1 expression was still decreased to about 50% (Fig. 3G). However, as shown in Fig. 3H, when DENV-2 NS1 expression was measured by densitometry, a statistically significant decrease was noted with the overexpression of either miRNA. Taken together, these findings confirm the function of host miR-484 and miR-744 as inhibitors of DENV infection and protein synthesis. Nevertheless, additional studies are required to confirm the antiviral function of these two miRNAs.