MicroRNAs in Inflammatory Lung Disease

Inflammatory lung diseases include both acute inflammatory diseases such as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and chronic inflammatory diseases including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and sarcoidosis. Both acute and chronic inflammatory lung diseases are associated with airway inflammation and are influenced by a combination of environmental, genetic, and epigenetic components. Epigenetic regulation, including microRNA (miRNA), of gene expression contributes to inflammatory lung disease development and severity. With the advancement of "omics" technology, miRNA expression and function in inflammatory lung diseases have been well studied, leading to a clear conclusion that miRNAs are differentially expressed under inflammatory lung disease conditions and contribute to genomic dysregulation in these diseases. Here we summarized the most up-to-date findings of miRNA in the inflammatory lung diseases including asthma, ARDS, COPD, cystic fibrosis, and sarcoidosis, and clinical implications of miRNA in these diseases. miRNAs are valued to be served as biomarkers, diagnostic tools, as well as therapeutic targets of inflammatory lung diseases.