Immune mechanisms of allergic airway disease: regulation by transcription factors

Allergic asthma is an airway inflammatory disease characterized by chronically increased expression of multiple inflammatory proteins, including cytokines, chemokines, adhesion molecules, enzymes, and receptors. Several transcription factors are known to play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases such as asthma, including signal transducer and activator of transcription factors, nuclear factor-kappaB, nuclear factor of activated T cells, activator protein-1 family proteins, and Th2 cellrelated transcription factors including GATA3, JunB, and c-Maf. Modulation of the activity of certain transcription factors has been shown to result in the inhibition of inflammation during asthma. Therefore, both agonists and inhibitors of transcription factors may be potential tools for the treatment of asthma. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of the role of well-established transcription factors in asthma.