Intranasal instillation of miR-410 targeting IL-4/IL-13 attenuates airway inflammation in OVA-induced asthmatic mice

Asthma is a common chronic inflammatory respiratory disease characterised by airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness. The present study was designed to clarify the effect of intranasal miR-410 administration in an ovalbumin (OVA)-induced murine model of asthma. It was found that miR-410 expression was significantly decreased in the lungs of OVA-induced asthmatic mice (P<0.05) and miR-410 was overexpressed via intranasal instillation. Bioinformatics indicated that the 3′-untranslated regions of interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-13 messenger RNAs (mRNAs) contain miR-410 binding sites. The IL-4 and IL-13 genes were confirmed to be miR-410-regulated using the dual-luciferase reporter assay. Additionally, intranasal administration of miR-410 markedly attenuated airway inflammation and reduced infiltration of inflammatory cells into bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (P<0.05) as determined by bronchoalveolar lavage fluid analysis. Moreover, miR-410 significantly decreased the lung expression of IL-4 and IL-13 (P<0.05), although the levels of mRNAs encoding IL-4 and IL-13 in lungs did not change significantly as determined by real-time PCR analysis. In conclusion, we found that intranasal administration of miR-410 effectively inhibited airway inflammation in OVA-induced asthmatic mice by targeting IL-4 and IL-13 at the post-transcriptional level. miR-410 is thus a promising treatment for allergic asthma.