Rijavec Matija, Korošec Peter, Žavbi Mateja, Kern Izidor, Malovrh Mateja Marc
University Clinic of Respiratory and Allergic Diseases Golnik, Golnik, Slovenia.
Sci Rep. 2014 Aug 18;4:6103. doi: 10.1038/srep06103.
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease. Around 5 to 10% of patients classified as having severe asthma can-not be adequately controlled despite the use of all currently available therapeutic approaches. Previous studies have revealed the potential important role of miRNAs in the regulation of a variety of inflammatory processes, including asthma. Expression of selected miRNAs, specifically let-7a, miR-21 and miR-223, that were shown to have important roles in asthma pathogenesis, were analyzed in bronchial biopsies of 24 patients with asthma, 12 mild and 12 severe, and 10 controls with no chronic disease. We found significantly reduced expression of let-7a in bronchial biopsies from patients with severe asthma in comparison to patients with mild asthma as well as in comparison to the non-asthmatic controls. On the other hand, no significant differences in miR-21 and miR-223 expression were found between the different groups analyzed. Reduced let-7a levels in bronchial biopsies of patients with severe therapy-resistant asthma could not only be used as a potential biomarker to discriminate between different asthma phenotypes, but also might be a target for modulation of treatment at the inflammatory site for a group of patients that are most affected and still lack effective treatment.
哮喘是一种慢性炎症性疾病。尽管使用了目前所有可用的治疗方法，但仍有5%至10%被归类为重度哮喘的患者无法得到充分控制。先前的研究已经揭示了微小RNA（miRNA）在包括哮喘在内的多种炎症过程调节中的潜在重要作用。在24例哮喘患者（12例轻度和12例重度）以及10例无慢性疾病的对照者的支气管活检中，分析了选定的在哮喘发病机制中起重要作用的miRNA，特别是let-7a、miR-21和miR-223的表达。我们发现，与轻度哮喘患者以及非哮喘对照者相比，重度哮喘患者支气管活检中let-7a的表达显著降低。另一方面，在所分析的不同组之间，miR-21和miR-223的表达未发现显著差异。重度治疗抵抗性哮喘患者支气管活检中let-7a水平的降低不仅可作为区分不同哮喘表型的潜在生物标志物，而且对于一组受影响最严重且仍缺乏有效治疗的患者，可能是炎症部位治疗调节的靶点。
