Table 1.

Examples of non-coding RNAs in host–protozoan parasites interactions.

Protozoan	Host	Experimental evidences	Reference
Trypanosoma cruzi	Human	T. cruzi extracellular vesicles (EVs) deliver sncRNA cargo into HeLa cells conferring susceptibility to infection and changing expression of genes related to cytoskeleton, extracellular matrix, and immune responses pathways	Bayer-Santos et al., 2013, 2014; Garcia-Silva et al., 2014a,b; Fernandez-Calero et al., 2015
	Human and murine	Dysregulation of miRNAs of myocardial tissue in human chronic Chagasic cardiomyopathy (CCC) and in murine T. cruzi acute infection Overexpression of lncRNA-myocardial infarction-associated transcript (MIAT) in human CCC and murine T. cruzi acute infection	Ferreira et al., 2014; Navarro et al., 2015; Frade et al., 2016
	Murine	Up-regulation of miRNAs of thymic epithelial cells in T. cruzi-induced thymic atrophy	Linhares-Lacerda et al., 2015
Leishmania spp.	Murine and human	Dysregulation of miRNA expression in L. major-infected murine and human primary macrophages. Up-regulation of miRNAs targeting MAP kinase, JAK-STAT and TGFβ signaling pathways in human monocyte derived dendritic cells and macrophages	Lemaire et al., 2013; Frank et al., 2015; Geraci et al., 2015
	Murine	Extracellular vesicles secreted by L. donovani downregulated miR-122 activity in hepatic cells. Leishmania metalloprotease gp63 targets pre-miRNA processor Dicer1 to prevent miRNP formation in hepatic cells	Ghosh et al., 2013
	Human	L. donovani and L. braziliensis EVs deliver specific sncRNAs into human macrophages	Lambertz et al., 2015
	Human	Autophagic machinery of bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDM) is activated in L. major infection. Transfection of BMDM with specific siRNAs against autophagy-related genes or inhibitors of autophagy-associated miRNAs inhibited autophagic digestion of L. major	Singh et al., 2016
	Murine and human	Downregulation of vacuolar sorting protein HRS in L. donovani-infected macrophages prevents uncoupling of mRNA-AGO2 interaction, blocking degradation of translationally repressed messages. let-7a miRNPs fail to repress newly formed IL-6 mRNA. Translation of IL-6 helps Leishmania to suppress host macrophage activation and promote infection	Bose et al., 2017
Plasmodium ssp.	Anopheles gambiae	Depletion of Argonaute I and Dicer I in the mosquito A. gambiae during P. berghei infection led to a two-fold increase in the number of oocysts	Winter et al., 2007
	Human	In the Plasmodium intraerythrocytic cycle, miRNAs (let-7i and miR-451) are transferred from sickle cell erythrocytes to the P. falciparum inhibiting the parasite growth	LaMonte et al., 2012
	Human and murine	P. falciparum-infected erythrocyte releases EVs carrying functional miRNAs, which are internalized by endothelial cells altering gene expression and barrier properties in endothelial cells	Mantel et al., 2016
	Human and murine	Blocking miR-155 function in an experimental mouse model of cerebral malaria by gene knockout or pre-treatment with miR-155 antagomir enhances endothelial quiescence, blood-brain-barrier integrity and host survival	Barker et al., 2017
Toxoplasma gondii	Human and murine	Alteration of miRNA profiles in T. gondii-infected human fibroblasts. miR-146a and miR-155, involved in response to T. gondii challenge, were induced in mouse brain during T. gondii infection	Zeiner et al., 2010; Cannella et al., 2014
Cryptosporidium parvum	Human	C. parvum infection dysregulates miRNA expression in human cholangiocytes. Downregulation of some miRNAs (e.g., let-7 miRNA and miR-221) increases infiltration of lymphocytes into the intestinal mucosa and reinforces epithelial defense response against C. parvum. Inhibition of other miRNAs (mir-125b-1, mir-21, mir-30b, and mir-23b-27b-24-1 cluster genes) increases C. parvum burden	Chen et al., 2007; Zhou et al., 2009; Gong et al., 2011
Trichomonas vaginalis	Human	T. vaginalis trophozoites release exosomes carrying small RNAs that fuse with human ectocervical cells to deliver their cargo. Exosomes modulate secretion of proinflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-8, which are regulated by endogenous miRNAs	Twu et al., 2013