MiR-30a Positively Regulates the Inflammatory Response of Microglia in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a classical inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Microglia are the main resident immune cells in the CNS and are closely associated with the pathogenesis of MS. In the present study, we found that miR-30a was highly expressed in jellyfish-like microglia in chronic active lesions of MS patients, as well as in the microglia of mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) at the chronic phase. In vitro, the conditioned supernatant of mouse microglia overexpressing miR-30a promoted the apoptosis of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs), and inhibited OPC differentiation. In vivo, overexpressing miR-30a in transplanted microglia exacerbated the progression of EAE. Overexpression and knock-down experiments in primary cultured mouse microglia showed that miR-30a increased the expression of IL-1β and iNOS, which are pro-inflammatory, while inhibiting the expression of Ym-1 and CD206. Mechanistically, miR-30a inhibited the expression of Ppargc1b, which is the co-activator of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, resulting in pro-inflammatory effects. Our work shows that miR-30a is an important regulator of the inflammatory response in microglia, and may be a promising therapeutic target for inflammatory diseases like MS in the CNS.