Potential therapeutic targets from genetic and epigenetic approaches for asthma

摘要

Asthma is a complex disorder characterised by inflammation of airway and symptoms of wheeze and shortness of breath.Allergic asthma,atopic dermatitis and allergic rhinitis are immunoglobulin E(IgE) related diseases.Current therapies targeting asthma rely on non-specific medication to control airway inflammation and prevent symptoms.Severe asthma remains difficult to treat.Genetic and genomic approaches of asthma and Ig E identified many novel loci underling the disease pathophysiology.Recent epigenetic approaches also revealed the insights of DNA methylation and chromatin modification on histones in asthma and IgE.More than 30 micro RNAs have been identified to have regulating roles in asthma.Understanding the pathways of the novel genetic loci and epigenetic elements in asthma and IgE will provide new therapeutic means for clinical management of the disease in future.