Extracellular vesicles carrying significant amounts of microRNAs are present in goat milk powders

Milk-derived extracellular vesicles (mEVs) play a crucial role in intercellular communication, mainly via their microRNAs, and could influence consumer health. Little is known about mEVs from goat milk powder (GMP) consumed as an alternative to bovine milk powder. mEVs were isolated from skimmed and whole GMP, using Size Exclusion Chromatography and their microRNA profiles (miRNomes) were established using RNA sequencing. We showed by nanoparticle tracking analysis that GMPs contained between 1.56,10⁹ and 6.63,10⁹ mEVs mL⁻¹ of reconstituted milk, ranging in size from 136.8 to 160.6 nm. Five major milk protein mRNAs were also detected within mEVs. The GMP miRNome was made of 351 microRNAs, sharing 89 % of known microRNAs with previously reported raw goat milk miRNome. Thus, we demonstrated that: i) mEVs of a typical morphology are present in GMPs; ii) mEVs survived the drying process; iii) their microRNA cargo is rather well protected from degradation during this process.