Chen et al. (2020) found that monocyte-derived exosomal lncRNA (CLMAT3) could activate the 85 CtBP2–p300–NF-κB transcription complex to induce pro-inflammatory cytokines in ALI. Mohamed Gamal El-Din et al. (2020) showed the use of lnc-RNA-RP11-510M2.10 to diagnose and determine the prognosis of lung cancer. LncRNAs are also involved in acute brain and kidney injury (Brandenburger et al., 2018; Chandran, Mehta & Vemuganti, 2017), but the data on exosome lncRNA serving as a target for the diagnosis and treatment in ALI are still lacking. Here, EP300 is linked to acute respiratory distress syndrome.