Owing to these associations, as well as its co-localization and proposed regulatory interactions with the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) (Avella et al., 2011; Bertrand et al., 2017; Bertrand et al., 2009; Chang et al., 2009a; Strug et al., 2016), SLC26A9 has been proposed as a therapeutic target for treating complications associated with cystic fibrosis and other diseases of the airways and gastrointestinal tract (Balázs and Mall, 2018; Mall and Galietta, 2015). This evidence concerns the gene CFTR and cystic fibrosis.