Abstract
Background: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways affecting more than 300 million people worldwide. The most common treatment for asthma is inhaled corticosteroids(ICS), but this treatment is not adequate for all individuals. microRNAs(miRs) were shown to be involved in asthma, allergy and inflammation, but their exact function in these processes remains largely unknown. In this study we asked whether ICS affected gene and miR expression in blood cells from allergic(AA) and non-allergic asthmatic(NAA) individuals.
Methods: Healthy, AA and NAA individuals, which included ICS naïve and regular users, were recruited from the population based West Sweden Asthma Study. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs) were examined for alterations in gene and miR expression in the glucocorticoid signaling pathway.
Results: We discovered that the healthy and asthma subgroups exhibited distinct changes on a genetic level, with subjects on ICS clustering more closely than ICS naïve. Interestingly, we found that in the asthma subgroups compared to healthy subjects, a transcription factor, POU2F1, and a kinase, SGK1, were down- and up-regulated, respectively. These alterations were most prominent in ICS naïve AAs. Additionally, miR-19a was predicted to target and appeared to correlate to the aforementioned genes suggesting involvement in the posttranscriptional regulation of glucocorticoid signaling.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that alterations in glucocorticoid related genes and miR-19a may be influential in promoting asthma pathogenesis. Together these data will lead to a more thorough understanding of the complex regulation of gene and miR expression in asthma.
Footnotes
Cite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2020; 56: Suppl. 64, 2715.
This abstract was presented at the 2020 ERS International Congress, in session “Respiratory viruses in the "pre COVID-19" era”.
This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).
- Copyright ©the authors 2020