Characterization and biological function of milk‐derived miRNAs

Abstract

These results reinforce previous findings on the importance of miRNA in breast milk. Future studies should concentrate on the addition of miRNA to infant formulas.

Food‐Derived Xeno‐microRNAs: Influence of Diet and Detectability in Gastrointestinal Tract—Proof‐of‐Principle Study

“…Golan‐Gerstl et al. have recently performed next‐generation sequencing and profiled different fractions of milk including milk from different species . Most strikingly, the authors co‐incubated the milk‐derived miRNAs with normal and cancer cells and observed increased quantity of miR‐148a and downregulation of a target gene.…”

Milk MicroRNAs in Health and Disease

“…Among those, the same microRNAs are recurrently found in the top 10 most enriched sequences in milk (Table ). Most interestingly, in all the studies, these 10 microRNAs represent 40% to 80% of all sequences suggesting that, depending on the sample, a limited number of microRNA is specifically secreted in milk (Golan‐Gerstl et al., ; Kahn et al., ; Liao et al., ; Munch et al., ; Rubio et al., ; Simpson et al., ; van Herwijnen et al., ; Zhou et al., ).…”

“…MicroRNA hsa‐miR‐148a‐3p is consistently the most abundant microRNA in breast milk, most likely because of its importance for lactation and its enrichment in mammary gland cells (Chen et al., ; Do, Dudemaine, Li, & Ibeagha‐Awemu, ; Gu et al., ; Muroya et al., ). It is then with little surprise that this microRNA is the most studied milk microRNA (Benmoussa et al., ; Golan‐Gerstl et al., ; Melnik, ; Melnik & Schmitz, , ; Simpson et al., ; van Herwijnen et al., ). Other less‐expressed microRNAs have nevertheless been investigated in breast milk, like the immunity‐related microRNAs hsa‐miR‐223 or hsa‐miR‐146a (Iannaccone et al., ; Liao et al., ; Perri et al., ; van Herwijnen et al., ).…”

“…Research on human breast milk showed that the immense majority of milk microRNA are immunity‐modulating microRNAs (Benmoussa et al., , ; Chen et al., ; Cui et al., ; Golan‐Gerstl et al., ; Hata et al., ; Izumi et al., ; Kosaka et al., ; Melnik, John, & Schmitz, ; Munch et al., ; Na et al., ; Zempleni et al., , ; Zhou et al., ), with some of these differentially expressed during breast cancer development in vitro (Pigati et al., ) and in vivo (Do Canto et al., ). Nevertheless, the data on cancer and breast milk microRNAs remain scarce and need further compilations.…”

“…According to more than 30 studies, from different teams around the world, milk EVs resisted in vitro digestion (Benmoussa et al., ; Kahn et al., ; Liao et al., ; Rani et al., ; Shandilya et al., ; Vashisht et al., ) were internalized by recipient cells upon co‐incubation (Admyre et al., , 2008; Aqil et al., , ; Badawy et al., ; Golan‐Gerstl et al., ; Hock et al., ; Kahn et al., ; Liao et al., ; Maburutse, Park, Oh, & Kim, ; Martin et al., ; Matsuda & Patel, ; Mobley et al., ; Munagala et al., ; Naslund et al., ; Qin et al., ; Vashisht, Rani, Onteru, & Singh, ; Yu et al., ), transduced through the intestinal wall in vitro (Rani et al., ; Shandilya et al., ; Wolf et al., ), and were detected in animal models after ingestion (Manca et al., ; Munagala et al., ) or intravenous injection (Somiya, Yoshioka, & Ochiya, ).…”