Breaking through Restricting Bottleneck for Better Asthma Control

Elevated expression of microRNA-378 in children with asthma aggravates airway remodeling by promoting the proliferation and apoptosis resistance of airway smooth muscle cells

The present study determined the expression of microRNA (miR)-378 in the peripheral blood and lung tissues of children with asthma, and investigated its effect and mechanism of action on the biological functions of airway smooth muscle cells. A total of 23 asthmatic children and 15 healthy children were included in the study. Peripheral blood and tissues were obtained from asthmatic children. Healthy children provided peripheral blood. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the expression of miR-378. Airway smooth muscle cells were isolated and cultured in vitro. The cells were transfected with miR-378 mimics or miR-378 inhibitor. Following transfection, proliferation of the cells was determined using the CCK-8 assay. In addition, flow cytometry was used to detect the cell cycles and apoptosis of smooth muscle cells. Western blotting was performed to determine the expression of extracellular matrix proteins in smooth muscle cells. Furthermore, bioinformatics was used to predict potential target genes of miR-378 and their downstream signaling pathways. Results indicated that the expression of miR-378 in peripheral blood and lung tissues from asthmatic children was increased compared with that in healthy children. Serum from asthmatic children promoted the proliferation of smooth muscle cells in vitro by affecting the cell cycle, and enhanced apoptotic resistance of smooth muscle cells. Notably, overexpression of miR-378 increased the proliferation of smooth muscle cells by affecting the cell cycle, and this upregulated apoptotic resistance of smooth muscle cells and enhanced the expression of extracellular matrix-related proteins in smooth muscle cells. However, downregulation of miR-378 expression reversed the promoting effect of serum from asthmatic children on the biological functions of smooth muscle cells. These findings suggested that miR-378 possibly affects the proliferation, apoptosis and motility of airway smooth muscle cells via downstream signaling pathways. To conclude, the present study demonstrated that miR-378 expression was elevated in the peripheral blood and lung tissues from children with asthma. Furthermore, miR-378 promoted the biological functions of extracellular matrix-related proteins of smooth muscle cells, and possibly exerts its effect via its target genes through downstream signaling pathways.

Quality of Life in Children with Asthma versus Healthy Children

BACKGROUND:

Asthma is the most prevalent chronic disease in the pediatric age group. The disease affects different aspects of the children’s lives, such as physical, emotional, social and educational aspects. Thus, more focus has been on the quality of life in these patients rather than the duration of their illness in recent years.

AIM:

This study examined the different aspects of quality of life in asthmatic children for the first time in this geographic area.

METHODS:

The study was cross-sectional conducted in 2015-2016. The asthmatic group was 100 patients aged 8 to 12 admitted to the Asthma and Allergy Clinic of Ghaem Hospital (as) in Mashhad with the control group composed of 100 healthy children of the same age and gender. The standard questionnaire pedsQLTM was used for comparing the quality of life of children in the two groups. Statistical analysis was SPSS23 with P-value less than 0.05, which was statistically significant.

RESULTS:

In each group, 58 patients were boys, and 42 were girls. In a comparison of the quality of life of children, the asthma group with a mean total score of Peds QL 20.99 ± 12.54 compared to the healthy children with a mean total score of Peds QL of 8.8 ± 5.41 had a lower quality of life (P < 0.001). Moreover, regarding various aspects of quality of life asthma group had a lower quality of life in physical performance, emotional performance and performance in school (P < 0.001). Nonetheless, there was no significant difference between the two groups considering social function (P = 0.267). Examining the relationship between Peds QL score of patients with asthma with various variables was indicative of the fact that Peds QL scores were significantly correlated with the gender of the patients, showing better quality of life in the girls (P = 0.001).

CONCLUSION:

The results indicated that children with asthma have a significantly lower quality of life compared with healthy children of the same age. Also, in examining the different aspects of quality of life, these children had a lower quality of life in physical performance, emotional performance, and performance at school, and were at the level as that of healthy children only in social performance.

Neurokinin 1 receptor promotes rat airway smooth muscle cell migration in asthmatic airway remodelling by enhancing tubulin expression

Background

Airway remodelling is a major contributor to hyper-responsiveness leading to chronic asthma; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1R) antagonist (WIN62577) on the migration of airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) and the expression of NK1R and alpha-tubulin in airway remodelling using young rats with asthma.

Methods

Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into a control group and airway remodelling group. Rats in the model group were stimulated with ovalbumin for 8 weeks. Primary ASMCs were cultured and purified from all rats, and then treated with different doses of WIN62577. The expression of NK1R and α-tubulin in ASMCs was assessed using immunofluorescence, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and western blotting. Changes in ASMC migration were detected by a transwell chamber assay.

Results

The transwell assay showed that the number of migrating ASMCs in the asthmatic airway remodelling group was significantly greater than that in the control group (P<0.01), which was inhibited by WIN62577 in a dose-dependent manner, with peak inhibition detected at 10^-8 mol/L. The mRNA and protein expression levels of NK1R and α-tubulin were significantly higher in the asthmatic airway remodelling group than in the control group (P<0.05 and P<0.01, respectively), and were significantly decreased after treatment with WIN62577 (P<0.01 and P<0.05, respectively).

Conclusions

NK1R antagonists may suppress ASMC migration in a rat model of airway remodelling by inhibiting tubulin expression, indicating a new potential target for the treatment and control of chronic asthma.