Plant miRNAs Could Enter Host Blood And Tissues Via Food Intake, Study Suggests

[DeSwiss]

Date: September 19, 2011

Source: Nanjing University School of Life Sciences

Summary: In a new study, researchers in China present a rather striking finding: that plant miRNAs could make it into the host blood and tissues via the route of food intake. Moreover, once inside the host, they can elicit functions by regulating host 'target' genes and thus regulate host physiology.

In a new study, Chen-Yu Zhang's group at Nanjing University present a rather striking finding: that plant miRNAs could make into the host blood and tissues via the route of food intake. Moreover, once inside the host, they can elicit functions by regulating host "target" genes and thus regulate host physiology.

MicroRNAs are a class of 19-24 nucleotide non-coding RNAs that do not code for proteins. MicroRNAs bind to target messenger RNAs to inhibit protein translation. In previous studies, the same group has 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 disease and act as signaling molecules in intercellular communication.

Here, they 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 and thus physiology of mammals.

The finding is obviously very thought-provoking; for instance, it would indicate that in addition to eating "materials" (in the form of carbohydrates, proteins, etc), you are also eating "information" (as different miRNAs from distinct food sources could well bear different consequences on the regulation of host physiology once taken by the host due to potential regulation of different target genes as determined by the "information" contained within the miRNA sequence), thus providing a whole new dimension to "You are what you eat." Furthermore, the potential significances of this finding would be:

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

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- So it seems that we're not only what we eat, but we eat the instructions for making what we eat too. Unfortunately, most of the instructions we're eating today are copyrighted to MONSANTO......

[exboyfil]

1. This calls for

[DeSwiss]

3. Yes that's a good idea since MONSATAN creates monster cancers.

- And instead of outer space, they only had to come from Kansas. Glad you made the connection.....

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[FarCenter]

2. Food is poison and should be consumed in strictly limited quantities

[Paulie]

4. Apparently so. Caloric restriction diets may lead to longer lifespans

Though it's still being studied.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/04/02/science/a-new-salvo-in-debate-over-caloric-restrictions-and-longevity.html?referrer=

[FarCenter]

5. Plants also resist herbivores by producing toxic chemicals

So aside from the fruits of plants that coevolved to be eaten and have their seeds spread via the dung of primates, be careful. Note also that plants generally do not want their leaves, stems, roots, tubers, bulbs, etc. to be eaten by animals, since that does not help with plant reproduction. Even immature fruits resist being eaten; e.g. you can get a tummy ache from eating green apples.

[AceAcme]

6. Corrupt Corporate "Scientists" have obfuscated this reality for a long time

[DeSwiss]

7. In any society's profit-motivated financial system......

...one can never truly trust it's brain-trust. Because they can never know when they are being told things for their own good, or are being sold things for someone else's.

- Until this Military-Technological-Industrial-Financial-Complex is rendered useless through the defection and withdrawal of all support by all humans on this planet, we will never be truly free.

[NickB79]

8. Is this the similar to this study the authors later retracted?

http://retractionwatch.com/2012/07/13/group-retracts-microrna-paper-after-realizing-reagent-was-skewing-results/

It appears they're very close in what they are studying.

[NickB79]

9. This study definitely contradicts the Nanjing study in the OP

http://www.asianscientist.com/in-the-lab/study-plant-microrna-enter-eaters-bloodstream-2013/

AsianScientist (Jul. 1, 2013) – New research refutes an earlier study that genetic elements from plants can make it into an eater’s bloodstream, calling it a ‘false positive.’

In 2011 and 2012, research from China’s Nanjing University made international headlines with reports that after mice ate, bits of genetic material from the plants they’d ingested could make it into their bloodstreams intact and turn the animals’ own genes off.

The surprising results, published in the journal Cell Research from Chen-Yu Zhang’s group, led to speculation that genetic illness might one day be treated with medicinal food, but also to worry that genetically modified foods might in turn modify consumers in unanticipated ways.

Now, though, a research team at Johns Hopkins University in the United States reports that Zhang’s results were likely a false positive that resulted from the technique his group used.

[DeSwiss]

10. Kick