An experiment using a mouse model of acid-induced acute lung injury or sepsis-induced acute lung injury showed that α7nAChR is expressed on alveolar macrophages and neutrophils, and activation of α7nAChR by nicotine or PNU-282987, a specific agonist, reduced the inflammatory responses and attenuated the severity of lung injury, whereas the lung injury became worse in α7nAChR-deficient mice (Su et al., 2007, 2010). The gene discussed is CHRNA7; the disease is Sepsis.