Delivery of RNAi Therapeutics to the Airways—From Bench to Bedside

Qiu, Yingshan; Lam, Jenny K. W.; Leung, Susan W. S.; Liang, Wanling

Respiratory inflammatory diseases impose substantial healthcare burden worldwide as many of the patients are inadequately controlled by current therapies [4, 5, 162] . These diseases are characterized by inflammation in the respiratory tract, which is manifested with increased expression of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines [163, 164] . The common lung inflammatory diseases include asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and acute lung injury (ALI). Table 4 lists the major in vivo studies that examine the effects of RNAi molecules in respiratory inflammatory disease. Notes: AHR, airway hyperresponsiveness; ALI, Acute lung injury; BALF, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid; CD86, cluster of differentiation 86; C-kit, a stem cell factor receptor; DCs, dendritic cells; HMGB1A, high mobility group box-1 A peptide; IFU, infectious unit; LPS, lipopolysaccharide; Mpl, myeloproliferative leukemia virus oncogene; OVA, ovalbumin; R3V6, an arginine-rich peptide; Rip2, receptor-interacting protein 2; RSV, respiratory syncytial virus; S1Plyase, sphingosine-1-phosphate lyase, SOCS, Suppressors of cytokine signaling protein 3; STAT6, signal transducer and activator of transcription factor 6; Syk, spleen tyrosine kinase; Tf-PEI, transferrin polyethylenimine; T h 2, T helper 2 cells; TNF-α, tumor necrosis factor-α; VEGFR, Vascular endothelial growth factor.