Downregulation of miR-671-5p promotes IL-10 mRNA increase in porcine moDCs stimulated with the probiotic BB12

Background: Previous work showed that the microRNA (miRNA) miR-671-5p was upregulated in monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) stimulated with Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB12 (BB12) with no increase in IL-10 after six hours of stimulation. In this work, we performed an in silico prediction of genes targeted by miR-671-5p and which are the terms and pathways involved with it. Also, miR-671-5p was transiently downregulated to assess its effect on IL-10 regulation.

Methods and results: First, we performed a Gene Ontology enrichment analysis to predict immune response terms and pathways involved with miR-671-5p. Some of the terms and pathways found were related to the immune response promoted by the probiotic, as the terms "negative regulation of the inflammatory response to an antigenic stimulus" and "cancer" were highlighted. Then, to assess the role of miR-671-5p in IL-10 regulation, moDCs were derived from porcine peripheral blood and later transfected with miR-671-5p antisense oligonucleotide (ASO). Flow cytometry was employed to evaluate the transfection efficiency. Then, the moDCs were stimulated with BB12, and the expression of IL-10 was assessed by RT-qPCR and ELISA. An increase in IL-10 transcript in miR-671-5p-ASO-transfected moDCs stimulated with BB12 was observed compared with moDCs stimulated with BB12 but not transfected. These results suggest the participation of miR-671-5p as a negative regulator of IL-10.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that miR-671-5p participates in the downregulation of IL-10, as previously predicted in silico by our work group. miR-671-5p could play an essential role in the immunomodulation promoted by the probiotic BB12.