Exogenous MicroRNAs in Humans - What makes certain microRNAs transportable?

Over the past few years, research has shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) can be absorbed during digestion, including miRNAs from cow's milk and rice. However, there are questions regarding why certain miRNAs are able to be transported into human tissues, and what physiological effects they may have. This week, a team from University of Nebraska-Lincoln published a paper in PLoS ONE in which they perform computational analysis of an immense dataset of miRNAs to determine what features of miRNAs make them transportable in humans. They found 8 diagnostic attributes of transportable miRNAs, including having an identical sequence with human homologs.