Abstract:

Bronchial asthma is a heterogeneous disease with complex pathological characteristics. At present, there is no sensitive and effective diagnostic method, and the severity is often underestimated, resulting in delayed treatment. Recently, circulating exosomal microRNAs (miRNAs) have been regarded as important communication mediators between cells. miRNAs are considered as potential disease biomarkers due to their high stability and convenience in specimen collection, as well as their high sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing and predicting various diseases. However, due to the late start of the research on circulating exosomal miRNAs, results on diagnosis, identification, efficacy prediction and prognosis evaluation of asthma are not consistent, and obstacles are still existing in its practical clinical application. Current evidence suggested that multiple circulating exosomal miRNAs could play a synergistic role in the occurrence and development of asthma, and individual physiological characteristics would be important factors affecting the association between circulating exosomal miRNAs and asthma. The differences and changes of the exact miRNA types and quantities before and after treatment in asthmatic patients with different disease progression and phenotypes need to be further refined and clarified. This review summarizes the recent advances in the association of circulating exosomal miRNAs with asthma, in terms of diagnoses, severity and phenotypic identifications, and curative effect and prognosis evaluations, in order to provide new ideas and directions for the early diagnosis and precise treatment of asthma.

Key words: exosome, circulating microRNA, asthma, biomarker