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Extracellular Vesicles and RNA of the Cervico-vaginal Compartment in Health and Retroviral Infection

Tuesday, 28 October 2014 at 15:30

Add to Calendar ▼2014-10-28 15:30:002014-10-28 16:30:00Europe/LondonExtracellular Vesicles and RNA of the Cervico-vaginal Compartment in Health and Retroviral InfectionSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

Molecular components of cervico-vaginal secretions may predispose to or protect against infection by HIV and other pathogens. Investigating cervico-vaginal lavage (CVL) samples from a sex trade worker cohort, nanoparticle tracking analysis indicated significant differences in extracellular vesicle abundance in samples from HIV-infected women compared with samples from uninfected individuals. Additionally, profiling of extracellular RNA in CVL and the extracellular vesicle fraction by a medium-throughput stem-loop/hydrolysis probe qPCR platform revealed that several small RNAs, including miR-223, were differentially expressed in health and HIV infection. Our work and a previous report showed that this miRNA hinders HIV replication in CD4+ T-cells and monocyte-lineage cells. To trace the path of specific RNAs from cellular origin to availability at the environmental interface, non-human primate RNA from tissue and vaginal swab samples were compared with lavage RNA. This work demonstrates that extracellular vesicles can be recovered from the vaginal compartment, carry cargo important in innate defenses against infection, and may provide markers of mucosal health.