Analysis of sheep peripheral blood mononuclear cells in response to Echinococcus granulosus microRNA-71 overexpression

Cyst echinococcosis, caused by Echinococcus granulosus, remains a zoonotic disease posing a great threat to public health and meat production industry. Sheep infected with E. granulosus show relatively high abundance of egr-miR-71 in the sera, but its role is unknown. Using bioinformatics and cell migration and Transwell assays, we comparatively analyzed the proteomes and cell invasion of sheep PBMCs in response to egr-miR-71 overexpression. The results showed that the egr-miR-71 induced a total of 157 proteins being differentially expressed and mainly involved in immune responses. In sheep PBMCs, egr-miRNA-71 overexpression induced significant downregulation of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) and accordingly promoted cell migration and invasion compared with the control. The results will provide a clue for further investigation of a role of circulating egr-miR-71 in immune responses during E. granulosus infection. •egr-miRNA-71 overexpression induced significant downregulation of MIF.•egr-miRNA-71 overexpression significantly promoted the migration of sheep PBMCs.•egr-miRNA-71 overexpression significantly promoted the invasion of sheep PBMCs.•The results will provide a clue for further exploring egr-miR-71 in immune responses.