Involvement of MicroRNA-155 in the development and progression of asthma

据估计，哮喘每年造成12亿英镑的生产力损失，影响了英国500多万人。在英国，它每年导致大约1500人死亡，74000人急诊入院（这是儿童入院的最常见原因）。据世界卫生组织预测，如果不采取紧急行动，未来10年全球哮喘死亡人数将上升20%。无视这些事实，与其他恶性肿瘤相比，哮喘得到的研究投资很少，这可能是这一未满足的临床挑战的潜在原因。在这个项目中，我们打算同时为临床和基础科学做出贡献。我们将最新颖的基础研究领域之一的专业知识（Tilman Sanchez-Elsner博士）与从临床和基础科学角度对疾病的深刻理解（Donna E. Davies教授和Peter Howarth博士）结合在一起。我们的理解是，哮喘研究必须使用相关的材料来源，这就是为什么我们打算使用来自哮喘患者和非哮喘志愿者的人类样本。这将遵循我们医院已经存在的伦理建议。获得这类样本将帮助我们在高基础科学标准下揭示一个新颖而复杂的分子机制，这将对哮喘等具有明显社会影响的临床问题产生影响。这种分子机制，即小rna （microrna）的作用，还没有得到广泛的研究。由于它的发现相对较晚（2006年获得诺贝尔奖），在临床领域尚未得到深入研究。根据我们的初步数据，microRNAs可能是哮喘患者所遭受的几种症状的背后，如哮喘性炎症和纤维化气道重塑。这是因为microrna可以充当主开关，同时控制多个过程。如果我们的初步结果和假设得到证实，我们就能揭示许多未知的方面，有助于发现新的治疗方法，并用于诊断患者，监测他们对特定治疗的反应。如果成功，这项研究的结果将有助于改善未来哮喘的控制。

It is estimated that asthma causes a loos of 1.2 billion in productivity each year, affecting over a 5 million people in the UK. In the UK it causes an estimated 1,500 deaths and 74,000 emergency hospital admissions a year in the UK (It is the commonest reason for admission of children to hospital). According to the WHO, it is predicted that, without urgent action, asthma deaths will rise a 20% in the next 10 years in the whole planet. Despise of these facts, asthma has received little research investment, compared to other malignancies, which may be the underlying reason for this unmet clinical challenge.In the proposed project, we intend to contribute to both clinical and basic science at the same time. We bring expertise in the one of the most novel basic fields in research (Dr Tilman Sanchez-Elsner) together with a deep understanding of the disease from the clinical and basic science point of view (Professor Donna E. Davies and Dr Peter Howarth). Our understanding is that asthma has to be studied employing relevant sources of material and this is why we intend to use human samples from asthmatics and non-asthmatics volunteers. This will be done observing the ethical recommendations already in place in our Hospital. The access to this kind of samples will help us unravel a novel and intricate molecular mechanism, under high basic science standards, which has consequences on a clinical problem with obvious social impact as asthma. This molecular mechanism, the role of small RNAs (microRNAs), hasn?t been studied in depth yet in the clinical field, due to its relatively recent discovery (Nobel Prize award in 2006). According to our preliminary data, microRNAs could be behind several symptoms suffered by asthmatics, as the asthmatic inflammation and the fibrotic airway remodelling. This is because microRNAs can act as master switches, controlling more than one process at the same time. If our initial results and our hypothesis are confirmed, we could unveil many unknown aspects that could help find out new therapies and be used to diagnose patients and monitor how they are responding to a given treatment. If successful, the consequences of this study could help improve the control of asthma in the future.