Our results showed miR-30a were downregulated in children with asthma and ovalbumin (OVA) mouse model in parallel with the upregulation of autophagy-related proteins; moreover, we observed miR-30a inhibited the autophagy by downregulated autophagy-related 5 (ATG5).
Genetic associations between autophagy genes and asthma have been observed including single nucleotide polymorphisms in Atg5 which correlate with reduced lung function.
We found variant rs12212740, an intronic SNP of ATG5, to be associated with asthma and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)) percent predicted in the French Canadian population and with FEV(1) in an American Caucasian cohort.