REVIEW article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Diabetes: Molecular Mechanisms
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1625307
Research Progress on Non-coding RNA Regulatory Networks and Targeted Therapy in Diabetic Nephropathy
Provisionally accepted
- Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, China
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Diabetic Nephropathy (DN), a leading cause of disability and mortality in patients with diabetes, has become a complex global clinical issue that poses a severe challenge to public health. Research indicates that Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) participate in cell death and fibrosis through an endogenous competitive RNA (ceRNA) network. This network regulates kidney-specific cells such as podocytes, mesangial cells, and renal tubular epithelial cells, thereby establishing a multifaceted regulatory mechanism in DN progression. Furthermore, exosomal ncRNAs and their ceRNA networks, stem cell-derived exosomal ncRNAs, related biomolecules, and the targeted regulation of ncRNAs and ceRNA networks by traditional Chinese medicine all play significant roles in the advancement of DN. This review systematically summarises the content of ncRNAs, ceRNA networks and DN, exosome ncRNA intervention in DN progression, and targeted regulation of ncRNA intervention in DN progression. Concurrently, it discusses the research progress and therapeutic status of ncRNAs as clinical biomarkers, challenges facing ncRNA-targeted therapy, therapeutic efficacy of exosomal ncRNAs and stem cell-derived exosomal ncRNAs, pharmacokinetic limitations of Chinese medicine components in regulating DN progression through ncRNA intervention, and analyses the bottlenecks in ncRNA-based diagnosis and cross-species conservation of circRNAs/lncRNAs. This study aimed to provide new insights for the in-depth exploration of the molecular mechanisms underlying DN and the development of targeted therapeutic strategies.
Keywords: diabetic nephropathy, non-coding RNAs, CeRNA networks, podocyte, Mesangial Cells, Renal tubular epithelial cells, Cell Death, Fibrosis
Received: 08 May 2025; Accepted: 11 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Jing, Yang, Shao, Yang, Shi, Yang, An and Liang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaxia Wang, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, China
Dong An, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, China
Yonglin Liang, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, China
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