Implications of miRNAs as players in the development of the immune system and the regulation of multiple immune functions are also coming to age (Sonkoly et al., 2008; Belver et al., 2011; O’Neill et al., 2011; Turner et al., 2011). Multiple profiling studies have confirmed the hypothesis that TLR signaling can modulate miRNA expression and this generally depends on NFκB. In all cases described, TLR activation exclusively induces upregulation of miRNAs (O’Neill et al., 2011). Interestingly, this is the same effect (miRNA upregulation) we observe in our own miRNA profiling studies in brain of human alcoholics. In this section, we address a series of recent findings that uncover a potential connection between a group of upregulated miRNAs in postmortem brains of human alcoholics and neuroinflammatory processes triggered by alcohol. We summarize this evidence in a hypothetical model presented in Figure 1.
