High Levels of miR-483-3p Are Present in Serum Exosomes Upon Infection of Mice With Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus

Tadashi Maemura; Satoshi Fukuyama; Yoshihiro Kawaoka

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.00144

High Levels of miR-483-3p Are Present in Serum Exosomes Upon Infection of Mice With Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus

Front Microbiol. 2020 Feb 11:11:144. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.00144. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Tadashi Maemura^{1

2}, Satoshi Fukuyama¹, Yoshihiro Kawaoka^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Virology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
² Department of Pathobiological Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States.
³ Department of Special Pathogens, International Research Center for Infectious Diseases, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Exosomes, the extracellular vesicles that contain functional proteins and RNAs, regulate cell-cell communication. Recently, our group reported that levels of various microRNAs (miRNAs) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid exosomes were highly increased in influenza virus-infected mice and that one of those miRNAs, miR-483-3p, was involved in the potentiation of the innate immune responses to influenza virus infection in mouse type II pneumocytes. Here, we evaluated exosomal miR-483-3p levels in the serum of influenza virus-infected mice and found that miR-483-3p levels were significantly increased during infection with a highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza virus. Moreover, miR-483-3p-enriched exosomes derived from type II pneumocytes potentiated the expression of proinflammatory cytokine genes in vascular endothelial cells. Our findings suggest that serum exosomal transfer of miR-483-3p might be involved in the inflammatory pathogenesis of H5N1 influenza virus infection.

Keywords: exosome; influenza virus; innate immunity; miR-483-3p; vascular endothelial cells.