Differential miRNA Expression in B Cells/T Cells Associated with Inter-individual Differences in Humoral Immune Response to Measles Vaccination

Through Next Generation Sequencing (mRNA-Seq) of intracellular miRNAs in measles virus-stimulated B and CD4+ T cells isolated from high and low antibody responders to measles vaccination, we identified a set of B cell-specific miRNAs (e.g., miR-151a-5p, miR-223, miR-29, miR-15a-5p, miR-199a-3p, miR-103a, and miR-15a/16 cluster) associated with measles-specific antibody response after vaccination. No CD4+ T cell-specific miRNA expression differences between high and low antibody responders were found. DIANA tool was used for gene/target prediction and pathway enrichment analysis and this yielded several biological processes/pathways, including regulation of adherens junction proteins, Fc-receptor signaling pathway, phosphatidylinositol-mediated signaling pathway, growth factor signaling pathway/pathways, transcriptional regulation, apoptosis and virus-related processes, that were significantly associated with neutralizing antibody titers after measles vaccination. This study demonstrates that miRNA expression directly or indirectly influences humoral immunity to measles vaccination and suggests that B cell-specific miRNAs may potentially serve as predictive biomarkers of vaccine response. Overall design: Examination of miRNA expression differences in/between purified B and CD4+ T cells of high and low responders to measles vaccination.

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Haralambieva IH, Kennedy RB, Simon WL, Goergen KM, Grill DE, Ovsyannikova IG, Poland GA