Center of Laboratory Medicine, The General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan 750004, China.
Department of Rheumatology, The General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan 750004, China.
J Immunol Res. 2016;2016:9392132. doi: 10.1155/2016/9392132. Epub 2016 Mar 27.
The Wnt signaling pathway plays a key role in many biological aspects, such as cellular proliferation, tissue regeneration, embryonic development, and other systemic effects. Under a physiological condition, it is tightly controlled at different layers and arrays, and a dysregulated activation of this signaling has been implicated into the pathogenesis of various human disorders, including autoimmune diseases. Despite the fact that therapeutic interventions are available for ameliorating disease manifestations, there is no curative therapy currently available for autoimmune disorders. Increasing lines of evidence have suggested a crucial role of Wnt signaling during the pathogenesis of many autoimmune diseases; in addition, some of microRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small, noncoding RNA molecules capable of transcriptionally regulating gene expression, have also recently been demonstrated to possess both physiological and pathological roles in autoimmune diseases by regulating the Wnt signaling pathway. This review summarizes currently our understanding of the pathogenic roles of Wnt signaling in several major autoimmune disorders and miRNAs, those targeting Wnt signaling in autoimmune diseases, with a focus on the implication of the Wnt signaling as potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets in immune diseases, as well as miRNA-mediated regulation of Wnt signaling activation in the development of autoimmune diseases.
Wnt 信号通路在许多生物学方面发挥着关键作用，例如细胞增殖、组织再生、胚胎发育和其他全身效应。在生理条件下，它在不同层面和排列中受到严格控制，而这种信号的失调激活已被牵连到各种人类疾病的发病机制中，包括自身免疫性疾病。尽管有治疗干预措施可改善疾病表现，但目前尚无针对自身免疫性疾病的治愈疗法。越来越多的证据表明，Wnt 信号在许多自身免疫性疾病的发病机制中起着至关重要的作用；此外，一些 microRNAs（miRNAs），一类能够转录调控基因表达的小型非编码 RNA 分子，最近也被证明通过调节 Wnt 信号通路在自身免疫性疾病中具有生理和病理作用。本综述总结了目前我们对 Wnt 信号在几种主要自身免疫性疾病和 miRNAs 中的致病作用的理解，这些 miRNAs 靶向自身免疫性疾病中的 Wnt 信号，重点关注 Wnt 信号作为免疫疾病潜在生物标志物和治疗靶点的意义，以及 miRNA 介导的 Wnt 信号激活在自身免疫性疾病发展中的调节作用。
