Asthma is defined as a heterogeneous disease, usually characterized by chronic airway inflammation. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in various biological processes. To know more about the relationships between lncRNAs and asthma, gene microarray analysis was performed to screen differentially expressed lncRNAs between the lung tissue of ovalbumin (OVA) mice and control mice. Further studies showed that downregulating differentially expressed lncRNA-AK149641 by adeno-associated virus 6 (AAV6) in OVA mice inhibited airway inflammation, with improved airway compliance and resistance, diminished infiltration of inflammatory cells, as well as less secretions of mucus, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). Moreover, the activity of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) in the lung tissue was reduced after downregulating lncRNA-AK149641. In conclusion, we proposed that downregulation of lncRNA-AK149641 attenuated the airway inflammatory response in an OVA-induced asthma mouse model, probably in association with modulation of the NF-κB signaling pathway.

哮喘定义为异质性疾病，通常以慢性气道炎症为特征。长的非编码RNA（lncRNA）在各种生物学过程中起重要作用。为了进一步了解lncRNA与哮喘之间的关系，进行了基因芯片分析，以筛选卵清蛋白（OVA）小鼠和对照组小鼠的肺组织中差异表达的lncRNA。进一步的研究表明，OVA小鼠中腺相关病毒6（AAV6）下调了差异表达的lncRNA-AK149641抑制了气道炎症，改善了气道顺应性和抵抗力，减少了炎症细胞的浸润，并减少了粘液，肿瘤坏死因子的分泌α（TNF-α）和白介素6（IL-6）。此外，下调lncRNA-AK149641后，肺组织中核因子-κB（NF-κB）的活性降低。总之，我们提出lncRNA-AK149641的下调会减弱OVA诱发的哮喘小鼠模型中的气道炎症反应，这可能与NF-κB信号通路的调节有关。