miRNA in food simultaneously controls animal viral disease and human tumorigenesis

During virus infection in animals, the virus completes its life cycle in a host cell. A virus infection results in the metabolic deregulation of its host and leads to metabolic disorders, ultimately paving the way for cancer progression. Because metabolic disorders in virus infections occurring in animal are similar to metabolic disorders in human tumorigenesis, animal antiviral microRNAs (miRNAs), which maintain the metabolic homeostasis of animal cells, in essence, may have anti-tumor activity in humans. However, that issue has not been investigated. In this study, shrimp miR-34, a potential antiviral miRNA of shrimp against white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infection, was identified. Overexpression of shrimp miR-34 in shrimp fed bacteria expressing miR-34 suppressed WSSV infection by targeting the viral wsv330 and wsv359 genes. Furthermore, the expression of shrimp miR-34 in mice fed miR-34-overexpressing shrimp suppressed breast cancer progression by targeting human CCND1, CDK6, CCNE2, E2F3, FOSL1, and MET genes. Therefore, our study suggests that the miRNAs in food could be an effective strategy for synchronously controlling viral diseases of economic animals and cancers in humans.