Rho Kinase; a Novel Therapeutic Target in Asthma

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways, characterized by reversible airway narrowing, inflammation, airway remodeling and airway hyper-responsiveness. Although current drugs are effective on decreasing the acute symptoms of disease, they are only partially effective on most features of asthma. Rho/Rho-kinase signaling is contributed in many biological processes, including reorganization of the Actin cytoskeleton, contraction, cell migration and proliferation, and inflammation. It seems that these Rho-kinase functions are related to pathophysiological features of asthma including airway hyper-responsiveness, beta 2-adrenergic receptor desensitization, remodeling and eosinophil recruitment. Recent studies demonstrated that the inhibition of Rho-kinase reduced contraction, inflammation, and airway remodeling in animal model of asthma. Hence Rho-kinase signaling pathway is recommended as a novel therapeutic target in the treatment of asthma. So, as a novel therapeutic target in asthma, this review focuses on Rho kinase and offers compelling evidences on its critical role and its associated signaling on different features of asthma.