Wilson Annaleise, Farr Ryan J, Hine Brad C, Sanchez-Molano Enrique, Rootes Christina L, Su Jenny, Banos Georgios, Stewart Cameron R, Ingham Aaron B
CSIRO Health & Biosecurity, Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness, Geelong, Victoria, Australia.
CSIRO Agriculture and Food, F.D. McMaster Laboratory, Chiswick, Armidale, NSW, Australia.
J Anim Sci. 2025 Jan 4;103. doi: 10.1093/jas/skaf144.
An immune competence (IC) trait has been developed in livestock to combat infectious diseases through selective breeding. Here, we investigate whether circulating host-encoded microRNAs (miRNAs) are associated with immune responses to a commercial multivalent clostridial and leptospiral vaccine in Australian Angus steers, a proxy measure for IC. A total of 332 animals from 2 herds in New South Wales, Australia-Herd 1 (n = 168) and Herd 2 (n = 164)-were IC phenotyped on the day of yard weaning. Within a herd, animals were ranked by their antibody- (Ab-IR) and cell-mediated (Cell-IR) immune responses, and animals identified as "high" or "low" were in the top or bottom 7% of animals for each, respectively. A total of 47 steers that were identified as either low Cell-IR (n = 12), high Cell-IR (n = 11), low Ab-IR (n = 12), or high Ab-IR (n = 12) were selected for miRNA analysis. The IC score, a weighted average incorporating both Ab-IR and Cell-IR rankings, was calculated for selected steers. Our results indicate that the IC phenotype is associated with differences in circulating miRNA profiles. Linear regression modeling identified a potential association between pre-vaccination miR-150 levels and IC scores, while logistic regression modeling suggested that pre-vaccination miR-150 may differentiate IC high and low steers. Machine learning classification models further identified a 5-miRNA signature (miR-192, miR-150, miR-2285co, miR-155, and let-7a-5p) that classified high IC steers with 94% accuracy in this dataset. The findings of this pilot study suggest that circulating miRNAs warrant further investigation as potential predictors of immune response to vaccination and may provide insights into miRNA-regulated pathways involved in vaccine-induced immunity.
通过选择性育种，家畜已培育出一种免疫能力（IC）性状以对抗传染病。在此，我们研究循环宿主编码的微小RNA（miRNA）是否与澳大利亚安格斯公牛对商业多价梭菌和钩端螺旋体疫苗的免疫反应相关，这是IC的一种替代指标。来自澳大利亚新南威尔士州2个牛群——牛群1（n = 168）和牛群2（n = 164）的总共332头动物在断奶当天进行了IC表型分析。在一个牛群中，动物根据其抗体免疫反应（Ab-IR）和细胞介导免疫反应（Cell-IR）进行排名，被确定为“高”或“低”的动物分别处于每种反应的前7%或后7%。总共选择了47头被确定为低细胞介导免疫反应（n = 12）、高细胞介导免疫反应（n = 11）、低抗体免疫反应（n = 12）或高抗体免疫反应（n = 12）的公牛进行miRNA分析。为选定的公牛计算了IC评分，这是一个综合了Ab-IR和Cell-IR排名的加权平均值。我们的结果表明，IC表型与循环miRNA谱的差异相关。线性回归模型确定了疫苗接种前miR-150水平与IC评分之间的潜在关联，而逻辑回归模型表明，疫苗接种前miR-150可能区分IC高和低的公牛。机器学习分类模型进一步确定了一个5-miRNA特征（miR-192、miR-150、miR-2285co、miR-155和let-7a-5p），该特征在该数据集中对高IC公牛的分类准确率为94%。这项初步研究的结果表明，循环miRNA作为疫苗免疫反应的潜在预测指标值得进一步研究，并且可能为参与疫苗诱导免疫的miRNA调节途径提供见解。
