Part of the book: Respiratory Diseases
Subcellular organelles including mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum are now considered as one major target for many therapeutic approaches. In fact, recent evidence has uncovered the roles of mitochondria as a direct inflammatory and immune controller and contributor to the diseases by metabolic dysfunction and/or their abnormal dynamics. In addition, one of the important subcellular organelles, endoplasmic reticulum, also plays as an immune responder in several diseases including bronchial asthma. Recently, we have reported that the endoplasmic reticulum stress and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) contribute to the pathogenesis of steroid-resistant severe bronchial asthma through the modulation of immune responses such as production of regulatory cytokines and NLRP3 inflammasome activation. These findings indicate that the subcellular organelles and their complex can be a promising target for the development of novel therapeutic strategies including medicines to cure severe asthma. This chapter is aimed to present the state-of-art information regarding the role of subcellular organelles in severe asthma.
Part of the book: Asthma Diagnosis and Management