(Pic: Polymerase I and transcript release factor (PTRF) controls IL-33 subcellular location.)

Asthma is one of the most common chronic airway diseases. About 300 million people are diagnosed as asthma patients, and more than 2.5 million people die for it each year. Current medication still cannot cure asthma, which leads to a great burden for family and society.

IL-33 is a critical molecule in asthma development. However, the regulation of IL-33 release remains unknown. In June 2018, one study published in Frontiers in Immunology revealed that PTRF could regulate IL-33 release from living cells, which could help to complete the mechanism of asthma development.

Yingmeng Ni, Xiaoxia Hou and Jimin Hao in Ruijin Hospital, , and Yangyang Li in Shanghai Institute of Immunology and their colleagues analyzed the IL-33 protein complex with tandem affinity purification technique and found that PTRF interacted with IL-33. Further study showed that PTRF phosphorylation affected IL-33 nuclear location and it release from living cells. The researchers then established asthma model in PTRF^+/- mice. The partial loss of PTRF led to an excessive type 2 airway inflammation and a greater airway hyperreaction.

National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and National Natural Science Foundation of China supported this study. Helps from Kan Liao in Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology and Yue Lu in Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine were important for this study.

by Yingmeng Ni