ANO1 and asthma: Takano-Ohmuro et al. (2008) has explored the use of shikonin in asthma by focusing on its anti-inflammatory activity (Takano-Ohmuro et al., 2008). Other investigators have used a mouse asthma model to demonstrate that shikonin inhibits bone marrow-derived dendritic cell maturation in vitro, and allergic action as well as tracheal hyperresponsiveness in vivo (Lee et al., 2010). Since TMEM16A is expressed in airway smooth muscle cells and it participates in smooth muscle contraction (Huang et al., 2012), we assumed that TMEM16A may be involved in shikonin-mediated inhibition of asthma.