Asthma is one of the most common chronic respiratory diseases in the world. Exploration and understanding of the pathogenesis of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in airway epithelial cells, and the development of new molecular drugs targeted at airway inflammation and remodeling have become the key and hot points in the prevention and treatment of asthma. Emerging evidence has proven that miRNAs are strongly associated with numerous chronic respiratory diseases including asthma, but the involved molecular mechanisms have not been revealed. In the present study, we successfully isolated exosomes from BMMSCs and found that the derived exosomes could improve airway inflammation and remodeling in ovalbumin-induced asthma rats. Furthermore, we found that the highly expressed miR-223-3p in exosomes might play a key pivotal role in the protective effects on airway remodeling and asthma by regulating the NLRP3-induced ASC/Caspase-1/GSDMD signaling pathway. These results provided a promising molecule candidate and target for the therapy of asthma.
Keywords: Airway remodeling; Asthma; Exosomes; Inflammation; NLRP3 signaling pathway; miRNAs.
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