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Mir200 Family Essay

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The role of the miR200 family in the restoration of normal lung homeostasis and detection of early IPF
Scientific rationale:
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive, debilitating and life-threatening, interstitial lung disease of unknown etiology that has no cure (1). The median survival of patients with IPF is only 2 to 3 years. Respiratory failure resulting from this disease progression is the most frequent cause of death. Continuous damage to the alveolar epithelium and concomitant alveolar type II (ATII) cell apoptosis are thought to lead to fibroblast recruitment, accumulation and proliferation and contribute to the perpetuation of the fibrotic scarring and IPF development. ATII cells synthesize, store, and secrete …show more content…

The importance of these cells as targets in lung regeneration is supported by a recent publication on transplantation of ATII cells obtained from control organ donors to the lung of patients with IPF (4). This suggests that therapeutic targeting ATII cell proliferation and transdifferentiation to alveolar type I cells may induce lung regeneration in IPF.
Recent reports indicate the potential role of miRNAs as both therapeutic targets and biomarkers in IPF (5). MiRNAs are small (approximately 22 nucleotides in length) and stable non-coding molecules, which can regulate gene expression (6). They are important regulators of physiological processes, such as cellular proliferation leading to lung tissue repair. The miR200 family is functionally involved in canonical pathways of immune response and cell-cell communication. Here we propose novel studies using miR200b and miR200c in IPF compared to controls, first, to determine their function in the niche composed of ATII cells and fibroblasts, second, analyze their potential to stimulate ATII cell proliferation and transdifferentation to alveolar type I cells, third to analyze their capacity to inhibit the growth of fibroblasts; and fourth, to use them as early biomarkers of IPF development. The rationale for using 200miRNA family members as curing IPF drug is based on their dysregulated expression observed in IPF (7). Moreover, our

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