title: The role and regulation of microRNAs in asthma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Asthma is a common chronic inflammatory airway disorder that is characterized by variable and recurring airflow obstruction, chronic airway inflammation and bronchial hyper-responsiveness. The etiopathogenesis of asthma remains a complex issue. The intricacy in developing a more effective therapeutic strategy may be due to a large diversity in causative agents and a lack of understanding of the precise molecular mechanism involved in asthma. However, recent identification of microRNAs (miRs) has enhanced technological abilities to understand the disease process.
  
  
  RESULTS
  miRs regulate gene expression by controlling the translation of a specific type of messenger RNA. miRs have been recently identified as key regulatory RNAs with immense significance in numerous biological processes including asthma. miRs have been implicated to have a fundamental role in acute and chronic asthma and in airway remodeling by the regulation of multiple signal transduction pathways that are involved in the pathogenesis of asthma. It is possible that miRs may bring a fundamental change to our understanding of the pathophysiology of asthma. This may then lead to the development of novel efficacious therapeutic strategies in asthma.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this review, we highlight the current understanding of the role and regulation of miRs in asthma.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305-5236, USA.
authors.forename: Danit
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ariel
authors.forename: Daya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Upadhyay
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D016535:Bronchial Hyperreactivity / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs