{"doi":"10.1371/journal.pone.0233352","title":"Airway mir-155 responses are associated with TH1 cytokine polarization in young children with viral respiratory infections","abstract":"BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRs) control gene expression and the development of the immune system and antiviral responses. MiR-155 is an evolutionarily-conserved molecule consistently induced during viral infections in different cell systems. Notably, there is still an unresolved paradox for the role of miR-155 during viral respiratory infections. Despite being essential for host antiviral TH1 immunity, miR-155 may also contribute to respiratory disease by enhancing allergic TH2 responses and NFkB-mediated inflammation. The central goal of this study was to define how airway miR-155 production is related to TH1, TH2, and pro-inflammatory cytokine responses during naturally occurring viral respiratory infections in young children. METHODS: Normalized nasal airway levels of miR-155 and nasal protein levels of IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-13, IL-4 were quantified in young children (≤2 years) hospitalized with viral respiratory infections and uninfected controls. These data were linked to individual characteristics and respiratory disease parameters. RESULTS: A total of 151 subjects were included. Increased miR-155 levels were observed in nasal samples from patients with rhinovirus, RSV and all respiratory viruses analyzed. High miR-155 levels were strongly associated with high IFN-γ production, increased airway TH1 cytokine polarization (IFN-γ/IL-4 ratios) and increased pro-inflammatory responses. High airway miR-155 levels were linked to decreased respiratory disease severity in individuals with high airway TH1 antiviral responses. CONCLUSIONS: The airway secretion of miR-155 during viral respiratory infections in young children is associated with enhanced antiviral immunity (TH1 polarization). Further studies are needed to define additional physiological roles of miR-155 in the respiratory tract of human infants and young children during health and disease.","journal":"PLoS ONE","year":2020,"id":95885,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":35,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.951,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":447975,"name":"K. Salka","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":476363,"name":"Elizabeth Chorvinsky","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":447974,"name":"Xilei Xuchen","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":476364,"name":"Karima Abutaleb","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":375794,"name":"Geovanny F. Pérez","orcid":"0000-0003-2843-6837","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":446726,"name":"Jered Weinstock","orcid":"0000-0002-1892-7475","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":476365,"name":"Susana Gaviria","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":315299,"name":"María J. Gutiérrez","orcid":"0000-0001-5494-5841","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":315296,"name":"Gustavo Niño","orcid":"0000-0001-8621-6109","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":447973,"name":"Maria Arroyo","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":33,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T22:33:57.534608Z","pmid":"32442188","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}