title: XenomiRs and miRNA homeostasis in health and disease: evidence that diet and dietary miRNAs directly and indirectly influence circulating miRNA profiles.
abstract: Contributions of dietary miRNAs to circulating small RNA profiles would have profound implications for interpretation of miRNA biomarker studies: presumptive disease-specific markers might instead indicate responses to disease-associated quantitative or qualitative dietary alteration. This examination weighs the evidence for a 2-fold hypothesis: first, that ingested biological matter contributes directly to the miRNA complement of body compartments; and second, that these diet-derived exogenous miRNAs (or "xenomiRs") affect total miRNA profiles as part of a circulating miRNA homeostasis that is altered in many diseases. Homeostasis of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), a known miRNA carrier-provides a model as a proposed component of broader miRNA homeostasis. Further research into the dietary xenomiR hypothesis is needed to ensure rigor in the search for truly disease-specific miRNA biomarkers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. kwitwer1@jhmi.edu
authors.forename: Kenneth W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Witwer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans; D008075:Lipoproteins, HDL / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D008075:Lipoproteins, HDL; D035683:MicroRNAs