Further study showed that miR-21 could protect myocardial apoptosis by specifically inhibiting its target programmed cell death 4(PDCD4) expression.Myocardial microRNA expression changes in CVB3-infected mice were analyzed by real-time PCR and miR-21 was found to be the miRNA whose expression was significantly reduced. miR-21 administration efficiently alleviated CVB3-induced myocarditis by repressing PDCD4-mediated apoptosis.