MicroRNAs in lung diseases: Recent findings and their pathophysiological implications

Lung diseases are one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide and effective therapies are imperfect. Nonetheless, recently some novel strategies have been developed to treat and curtail their debilitating impact. Some of the treatments include the role of MicroRNAs (miRNAs) in stemming the spread of lung morbidities. Micro RNAs are small non-coding RNAs which are known as important players in the posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression in mammalian cells by regulating translation. MiRNAs are involved in basic regulatory mechanisms of cells including influencing inflammation. MiRNA dysregulation, resulting in aberrant expression of a gene, is suggested to play a key role in susceptibility of diseases. MiRNAs are involved in the pathogenesis of lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis, lung cancer, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. A better understanding of the involvement of miRNAs in pathogenesis of these diseases could result in the development of new therapeutic and diagnostic tools. In this review, we provide an overview of the current understanding of miRNA biogenesis and role as well as recent insights into role of some miRNAs in different pulmonary diseases. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.