Integrated software and modeling of the impact of plant-derived dietary microRNAs on the immune and nutritional status of children: an integrative in silico study

Childhood malnutrition remains a major global public health challenge. Plant-based foods such as moringa, dates, tiger nuts, soybeans, and maize contain biologically active microRNAs (miRNAs) that may exert cross-kingdom transcriptomic effects in the human host. The objective of the study was to model in silico interactions between plant miRNAs from a multi-ingredient nutritional porridge and human genes involved in infant immunity and growth. A predictive bioinformatics study was conducted using the miRBase database, miRDB (score ≥80), miRTarBase, and the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) for functional enrichment analysis. Statistical analyses, including Pearson’s chi-square test, the Mann-Whitney U test, and multivariate logistic regression, were applied to 27,544 miRNA-gene interactions. Among the 27,544 interactions, 7,400 (26.9%) reached a score ≥80, including 100 targeting immunity (n=50) or growth (n=12) genes. Genes of interest showed significantly higher mean scores (87.2±5.1 vs. 69.9±13.3; p<0.01). The miR156 family targeted IRF2BP2, PRKCB, and PAK1 (score 97-99) across four sources. DAVID confirmed 160 enriched pathways (fold enrichment up to ×49.6; p<10⁻⁸). Dietary plant miRNAs converge non-randomly toward fundamental pathways for infant immunity and growth, forming a synergistic molecular system warranting experimental validation.