miRNA profiling of primate cervicovaginal lavage and extracellular vesicles reveals miR-186 as a potential retroviral restriction factor in macrophages

The goal of this study was to examine microRNA profiles of primate cervicovaginal lavage (CVL) during the menstrual cycle and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection, and to determine if CVL-associated miRNAs might influence replication of retroviruses. CVL was collected for five weeks from two uninfected and four SIV-infected macaques. EVs were enriched by stepped ultracentrifugation and characterized by population-level and single vesicle analyses. miRNA profiles were assessed with a medium-throughput stem-loop/hydrolysis probe qPCR platform and validated by targeted qPCR assays.