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Human Milk MiRNA Acts on Infections in Both the Maternal Body and the Child During Breastfeeding

Mohammed Alsaweed1,2, Mezyndra Badsha1, Ching Tat Lai1

  • 1School of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.

Life (Basel, Switzerland)
|June 26, 2026
PubMed

Human milk is highly rich in miRNAs, with differential expression amongst its fractions, including cells, fat, and skim milk. Various factors, such as the stage of lactation or milk removal during breastfeeding, have been shown to influence the miRNA content of. Here, we sought to determine the effect of maternal and/or infant infection on the miRNA profile of cell and fat fractions analyzed using next-generation sequencing. Breastfeeding mother/infant dyads (n = 18) were followed during one or more infection episodes as well as upon recovery. Cells and fat together contain 1780 known miRNA species, which is the highest number of known miRNAs assayed in human body fluids to date. In addition, 592 novel miRNAs were predicted, of which 95 were of high confidence. Comparisons between samples collected when the participants were healthy and when infected yielded 453 differentially expressed (p < 0.05) known miRNAs. Of these, 70 were highly expressed and differentially regulated during infection, with 62 upregulated and 8 downregulated known miRNAs during infection. Most of the highly and differentially expressed miRNAs are known to play critical roles in immunity and immune system development. These findings support the use of miRNAs as biomarkers of the health status of the lactating breast and the breastfeeding mother/infant dyad.

Keywords:
breastfeedinghuman milkinfectionlactationmiRNA (microRNA)milk cellsmilk fatmilk fat contentnext generation sequencing

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