A recent study by SAHZU Professor Shen Huahao and his research team found that mTOR-autophagy axis played a key role in controlling the pathogenesis of acute lung injury. The researchers believed that the performance of mTOR in lung epithelial cells provided a new target for the treatment of acute lung injury.

Professor Shen, the project leader, Director of Zhejiang University Institute of Respiratory Diseases, Director of SAHZU Respiratory and Clinical Care Medical Center, Vice Chairman of the Respiratory Society, Chinese Medical Association and the leader of its Asthma Group, addressed that the mortality rate of acute lung injury-induced pneumonia or sepsis is very high; even if the patients could survive, their life quality would be significantly affected because of the severe lung function damage. Although there are many studies on acute lung injury, the effective treatment is still limited. Acute lung injury is a kind of severe and refractory respiratory disease. Therefore, clarifying the inducing mechanism of pathogen infection in acute lung injury is meaningful for developing effective drugs for acute lung injury.

The team found LPS could activate mTOR and inhibit the autophagy of its downstream cells to regulate the inflammatory reaction caused by lung epithelial cells. Meanwhile, mTOR-autophagy axis could regulate the inflammatory reaction through TLR4-Myd88-NF-κB signal channel. Their subsequent in vivo experiments also confirmed that LPS-induced acute lung injury could be obviously alleviated for the mice with alveolar and airway epithelial mTOR conditional knockout.

The study was published in Autophagy, an internationally recognized Journal on cell biology on 22nd Sept. This project was supported by the major projects funds of Natural Science Foundation of China.