title: Regulating the Regulators: microRNA and Asthma.
abstract: One obstacle to developing an effective therapeutic strategy to treat or prevent asthma is that the fundamental causes of asthma are not totally understood. Asthma is thought to be a chronic TH2 immune-mediated inflammatory disease. Epigenetic changes are recognized to play a role in the initiation and maintenance of a TH2 response. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are key epigenetic regulators of gene expression, and their expression is highly regulated, therefore, deregulation of miRNAs may play an important role in the pathogenesis of asthma. Profiling circulating miRNA might provide the highest specificity and sensitivity to diagnose asthma; similarly, correcting potential defects in the miRNA regulation network may lead to new therapeutic modalities to treat this disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine Division of Translational Medicine and Nanomedicine Research Center1, and Division of Allergy and Immunology2, Department of Molecular Medicine3, University of South Florida College of Medicine, and James A. Haley VA Hospital and Medical Research Center4, Tampa, FL 33612.
authors.forename: Jia-Wang
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Kunyu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hellermann
authors.forename: Richard F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Lockey
authors.forename: Subhra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mohapatra
authors.forename: Shyam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mohapatra