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Springer Nature [academic journals on nature.com], Cell Research, 1(22), p. 273-274, 2011

DOI: 10.1038/cr.2011.174

Springer Nature [academic journals on nature.com], Cell Research, 1(22), p. 107-126, 2011

DOI: 10.1038/cr.2011.158

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Exogenous plant MIR168a specifically targets mammalian LDLRAP1: evidence of cross-kingdom regulation by microRNA

Journal article published in 2011 by Lin Zhang, Dongxia Hou, Xi Chen, Donghai Li, Lingyun Zhu, Yujing Zhang, Jing Li, Zhen Bian, Xiangying Liang, Xing Cai, Yuan Yin, Cheng Wang, Tianfu Zhang, Dihan Zhu, Dianmu Zhang and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Our previous studies have demonstrated that stable microRNAs (miRNAs) in mammalian serum and plasma are actively secreted from tissues and cells and can serve as a novel class of biomarkers for diseases, and act as signaling molecules in intercellular communication. Here, we report the surprising finding that exogenous plant miRNAs are present in the sera and tissues of various animals and that these exogenous plant miRNAs are primarily acquired orally, through food intake. MIR168a is abundant in rice and is one of the most highly enriched exogenous plant miRNAs in the sera of Chinese subjects. Functional studies in vitro and in vivo demonstrated that MIR168a could bind to the human/mouse low-density lipoprotein receptor adapter protein 1 (LDLRAP1) mRNA, inhibit LDLRAP1 expression in liver, and consequently decrease LDL removal from mouse plasma. These findings demonstrate that exogenous plant miRNAs in food can regulate the expression of target genes in mammals.