IL6 and Salmonella Infections: In order to validate the results of our ceRNA network analyses, we assessed LNC_012227 and novel_circ_0004892, and confirmed that both were able to function as molecular “sponges” for miR-let-7g-5p, which in turn targeted and suppressed the expression of map3k8. Other let-7 family miRNAs have been previously shown to be downregulated in the context of macrophage Salmonella infection, resulting in the upregulation of the cytokines il-6 and il-10 (20).