Page 52 - Read Online

Ishmael. J Transl Genet Genom 2019;3:6 Journal of Translational
DOI: 10.20517/jtgg.2018.32 Genetics and Genomics

Editorial Open Access

Emerging role of microRNAs in allergic diseases

Faoud Ishmael 1,2
1 Departmen of Allergy and Sleep Medicine, Mount Nittany Medical Group, State College, PA 16803, USA.
2 Department of Medicine, Section of Allergy and Immunology, Pennsylvania State University Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA 17033,
USA.
Correspondence to: Dr. Faoud Ishmael, Department of Allergy and Sleep Medicine, Mount Nittany Medical Group, 1850 E. Park Ave,
Suite 201, State College, PA 16803, USA. E-mail: faoud.ishmael@mountnittany.org

How to cite this article: Ishmael E. Emerging role of MicroRNAs in allergic diseases. J Transl Genet Genom 2019;3:6.
https://doi.org/10.20517/jtgg.2018.32
Received: 6 Dec 2018 Accepted: 25 Feb 2019 Published: 14 Mar 2019

Science Editor: Faoud Terrence Ishmael Copy Editor: Cai-Hong Wang Production Editor: Huan-Liang Wu

The prevalence of allergic diseases has risen at alarming rates, and a recent study identified allergic
[1]
sensitization in 40% of school children worldwide . Allergic diseases affect a wide variety of organs,
including eyes (allergic conjunctivitis), nose (allergic rhinitis), airway (asthma), gastrointestinal tract (food
allergies and eosinophilic esophagitis), and skin (atopic dermatitis). Common gaps among these diseases are
the lack of understanding of the molecular basis of pathogenesis (particularly how and why inflammation is
de-regulated), and the crucial need to identify biomarkers to better diagnose and characterize these diseases.
Along these lines, microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as central regulators of many processes (including
inflammation) and potentially useful biomarkers (in large part because they are found in all biofluids). As a
result, it is not surprising that these two fields have intersected, and a better understanding of how miRNAs
regulate allergic inflammation could lead to novel therapies and diagnostic tools.

We are just beginning to understand the roles of miRNAs in allergic diseases. This special issue highlights
the emerging roles of miRNAs in across a spectrum of allergic disease that affects different organ systems,
and demonstrates their potential application to understanding, treating, and diagnosing human disease.
[2]
The article by Weidner et al. reviews the progress in our understanding of miRNAs in asthma, and the
evolution of research from mouse to humans. This review captures the translational research potential of
miRNAs in asthma, and underscores the need for both mouse and human studies in mechanistic miRNA
studies. In particular, ablation of pathogenic miRNAs (such as miR-155) in mice has demonstrated their
crucial role in pathogenesis of allergic inflammation, and their conserved role in human disease is now
[3]
becoming evident. In work from our lab, Zhang et al. present a primary research article that builds on the
mechanistic studies to show how miRNAs can be used to better characterize asthma. We now understand
that asthma is a syndrome that is comprised of many distinct phenotypes, which have different molecular

© The Author(s) 2019. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

www.jtggjournal.com