Asthma is a difficult chronic airway inflammation, if it cannot be treated and relieved in time, it will seriously affect the health and quality of life of patients. Airway remodeling is relevant to asthma, but there is currently no effective treatment for airway remodeling. Regulating the biological function of airway smooth muscle cells (AMSCs) may be an important method to inhibit airway remodeling. LncRNA MALAT1 and microRNA-216a are involved in the regulation of AMSCs respectively, but there is no research to prove that they can regulate airway remodeling of asthma through mutual combination. Hence, the aim of the present study was performed to investigate the function of lncRNA MALAT1 and microRNA-216a on AMSCs in asthma. The relationship between lncRNA MALAT1, microRNA-216a and AMSCs was studied by MTT, qPCR, Western blot, Transwell and flow cytometry. The results revealed that lncRNA MALAT1 was up-regulated and microRNA-216a was down-regulated in asthma. lncRNA MALAT1 inhibited microRNA-216a targetedly. Whether downregulating lncRNA MALAT1 or upregulating microRNA-216a, cell proliferation, migration and invasion were reduced and apoptosis increased. Therefore, it is believed that lncRNA MALAT1 promotes proliferation and migration of asthma AMSCs by downregulating microRNA-216a. Since lncRNA MALAT1 and microRNA-216a take part in asthma by jointly regulating the proliferation of airway smooth muscle cells and other biological functions, it would be interesting to study if they become biomarkers of asthma, and relationship between the two in asthma diagnosis and poor prognosis.

Background Asthma belongs to chronic inflammatory respiratory diseases characterized by airway inflammation and remodeling. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are promising therapeutic targets for various diseases, including asthma. In this work, we aim to investigate the role of circular RNA Erb-B2 receptor tyrosine kinase 2 (circERBB2) during progression of asthma. Methods Human airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) were treated with platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB) to mimic cell remodeling. The expression of circERBB2, microRNA-98-5p (miR-98-5p) , and insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) was measured by qRT-PCR. Cell proliferation, migration and apoptosis were determined by cell counting-8 (CCK-8), transwell, and flow cytometry. Protein levels of PCNA, MMP-9, IGF1R were evaluated using Western blotting. The levels of tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α), interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β), and IL‐6 were detected by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Luciferase reporter gene experiment was adopted to evaluate the targeting relationship between miR-98-5p with circERBB2 and IGF1R . Interaction between RNAs was determined by RNA pulldown and RIP assay. Results The depletion of circERBB2 attenuated the proliferation, migration, and levels of inflammatory factors induced by PDGF-BB and cell apoptosis. CircERBB2 was identified to directly interact with miR-98-5 p, and overexpression of miR-98-5p abolished the function of circERBB2 on PDGF-BB-stimulated ASMCs. IGF1R was identified as a target of miR-98-5p , and knockdown of IGF1R relieved the PDGF-BB-induced ASMCs proliferation and migration. Conclusion Our work disclosed that knockdown of circERBB2 suppressed PDGF-BB-caused proliferation, migration and inflammatory response of ASMCs, through regulating miR-98-5p/IGF1R signaling, presented circERBB2 as a promising therapeutic target for asthma.

Samples of typical street dust were collected from Jiansheng Town, Chongqing City and classified into four groups on the basis of particle size: 0–75, 75–150, 150–300, and 300–1000 μm. The pollutant content and heavy metal composition of the samples were investigated. The particles in the 0–75, 75–150, 150–300, and 300–1000 μm groups had mass fractions of 20.82% ± 8.86%, 24.68% ± 9%, 30.83% ± 9.76%, and 23.68% ± 15.56%, respectively. The highest concentration of nutritional pollutants was detected in the 300–1,000 µm group, with total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations of 3.07 ± 2.48, 0.64 ± 0.39, and 83.79 ± 65.28 g/kg, respectively. The lowest concentration of nutritional pollutants was observed in the 150–300 μm group, with TN, TP, and TOC concentrations of 1.78 ± 1.22, 0.51 ± 0.20, and 36.74 ± 24.64 g/kg, respectively. The nutritional pollutants presented similar mass fractions in the street dust samples with different particle sizes. Vegetation significantly affected the TOC content in the samples. The TOC content of the streets with rich vegetation was 1.90 ± 0.56 times that of the streets with less vegetation. The 150–300 µm group had the highest heavy metal mass percentage. Among the heavy metals detected in street dust, Cd, Cr, and Ni were mainly residuals; Cu and Pb were oxidizable; and Zn was mainly acid‐extractable. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 794–801, 2016