MicroRNAs in Respiratory Disease. A Clinician’s Overview

Abstract

Since their initial discovery in the early 1990s, microRNAs have now become the focus of a multitude of lines of investigation ranging from basic biology to translational applications in the clinic. Previously believed to be of no biological relevance, microRNAs regulate processes fundamental to human health and disease. In diseases of the lung, microRNAs have been implicated in developmental programming, as drivers of disease, potential therapeutic targets, and clinical biomarkers; however, several obstacles must be overcome for us to fully realize their potential therapeutic use. Here, we provide for the clinician an overview of microRNA biology in selected diseases of the lung with a focus on their potential clinical application.

Asthma diagnosis using integrated analysis of eosinophil microRNAs

“…Among the discovered miRNAs, some have been found for the first time in this study (ie, miR‐1246 and miR‐1290), while others have already been described and associated with asthmatic pathology . For example, miR‐21 is overexpressed in the asthmatic airways and miR‐146b‐5p is highly expressed in stimulated asthmatic airway smooth muscle cells …”

microRNAs in viral acute respiratory infections: immune regulation, biomarkers, therapy, and vaccines

“…First, the pri-miRNA which is nearly identical to mRNAs but lacks the translation start codon (AUG) is transcribed in the nucleus by RNA polymerase II. Folding into a characteristic stem-loop structure [7], the pri-miRNA binds to the double-stranded RNA-binding domain (dsRBD) of the protein known as the DiGeorge syndrome critical region of gene 8 (DGCR8) and is then cleaved by the ribonuclease III Drosha (also known as RNASEN), which releases an intermediate stemloop structure of 60-70 nt known as the pre-miRNA. After cleavage, the pre-miRNA retains a phosphate at the 5′ cap and two nucleotides that protrude at the 3′ cap.…”

Inhibition of miR-222-3p activity promoted osteogenic differentiation of hBMSCs by regulating Smad5-RUNX2 signal axis

“…MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding single-stranded RNAs of 21~25 nucleotides that are important negatively regulators of cellular gene expression at the post-transcriptional level through binding to targets 3′untranslated region (3′UTR) of a protein-coding gene harboring a"seed"sequence [3]. Certain miRNAs have been shown to play key roles in diverse biological processes, including development [4][5], cell proliferation/differentiation [6][7], and many other physiological and pathological processes [8][9][10][11][12].…”