microRNA

Overview

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of short, non-coding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression primarily at the post-transcriptional level. By binding to complementary sequences in target messenger RNAs, they can reduce protein production through mRNA degradation or translational repression. Because a single microRNA can influence multiple genes, miRNAs participate in broad regulatory networks that affect cell differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis, metabolism, immune signaling, and stress responses.

In biomedical research, microRNAs are widely studied as disease biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Altered miRNA expression has been associated with cancer, cardiovascular disease, inflammatory disorders, neurodegeneration, infectious disease, and fibrotic conditions. Recent studies also highlight their presence in extracellular vesicles and other circulating compartments, supporting their use in minimally invasive diagnostics and in mechanistic studies of intercellular communication.

Focus of Latest Publications

Recent publications establish microRNAs as versatile biomarkers across diverse disease contexts, with particular emphasis on cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Circulating microRNA signatures have shown diagnostic and prognostic potential in multiple malignancies: urothelial carcinoma in hemodialysis patients, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, and mesothelioma. Beyond oncology, microRNA profiles distinguish disease states in cardiovascular conditions such as coronary artery disease and cardiac fibrosis, in neurological disorders including idiopathic intracranial hypertension and moyamoya disease, and in infectious diseases such as equine piroplasmosis. Several studies report that specific microRNAs serve as quality indicators for clinical samples, reflecting time-dependent degradation during specimen storage, which has practical implications for standardizing liquid biopsy protocols.

Extracellular vesicles—including exosomes and other circulating vesicles—have emerged as preferred carriers of microRNA biomarkers, offering stable detection platforms and rich functional information. Researchers have identified tissue-specific and disease-state-specific microRNA signatures in extracellular vesicles from plasma, nipple discharge, and tissue matrices, with several studies achieving diagnostic accuracies exceeding 90% for cancer detection. Aging-related changes in extracellular vesicle composition and microRNA cargo have been characterized in multiple models, revealing differential effects on cardiovascular homeostasis and fibrosis. Notably, mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles contain microRNA repertoires capable of restoring depleted angiogenesis-related microRNAs in disease states such as moyamoya disease, supporting both therapeutic and biomarker applications.

MicroRNA-based systems are increasingly integrated with advanced molecular technologies for precision medicine applications. Researchers have developed microRNA-responsive nanoplatforms that couple microRNA detection with therapeutic actuation—including chemodynamic therapy, STING pathway hyperactivation, and CRISPR-mediated gene editing—enabling tumor-selective imaging and treatment. MicroRNA signatures predict treatment response in diverse contexts: response to immune checkpoint inhibitors in mesothelioma through competing endogenous RNA networks, outcome prediction following preoperative chemoradiotherapy in rectal cancer, and weight loss success after bariatric surgery. Additionally, engineered extracellular vesicles delivering microRNAs have shown promise in metabolic reprogramming of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for cardiac regeneration.

Technological advances in microRNA detection have expanded diagnostic capabilities and drug development. Electrochemical and optical biosensors now enable multiplexed, quantitative detection of microRNAs within lipid nanoparticle formulations used for therapeutic delivery, addressing pharmaceutical quality control challenges. CRISPR-based detection platforms utilizing CRISPR-Cas12a provide multi-modal signal outputs to improve specificity in complex biological samples. artificial intelligence frameworks that integrate experimentally validated microRNA-mRNA interaction databases with large language model-assisted mechanistic scoring have improved prediction of biologically relevant regulatory networks, supporting identification of novel therapeutic targets in vascular and cardiac disorders.

Key Publications

• NEWJun A physiology-informed microRNA framework for urothelial carcinoma in hemodialysis patients. (Renal failure, 2026, PMID 42374859): "In this research, we investigate the functional roles of these miRNAs in UC cells and refine the miRNA-based prediction model within a physiology-informed framework."
• NEWJun Potential of extracellular vesicle-derived microRNAs as a platform for biomarker discovery in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. (PloS one, 2026, PMID 42340965): "Extracellular vesicle (EV)-derived microRNAs (miRNAs) represent a promising platform for biomarker discovery in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)."
• NEWJun Aging impact on canine extracellular vesicles production, size, and miRNA content. (Veterinary research communications, 2026, PMID 42319614): "Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid-bilayer vesicles that mediate intercellular communication by transporting proteins, lipids, and regulatory RNAs, including microRNAs (miRNAs)."
• NEWJun Weight-Controllable Biobarcode Probes for Multi-input Breast Cancer Diagnosis. (Nano letters, 2026, PMID 42306980): "By integrating three miRNA inputs trained in silico machine learning, we constructed a WBP-based molecular classifier that can distinguish breast cancer patients from healthy individuals, achieving an accuracy of 84.00% on clinical serum samples."
• NEWJun Extracellular vesicles in nipple discharge for breast cancer screening. (Breast cancer research and treatment, 2026, PMID 42307695): "This study aimed to identify extracellular vesicles (EVs) miRNAs in ND using cellulose nanofiber (CNF) sheets to develop clinical biomarkers."
• NEWJun Identifying MicroRNA Biomarkers in Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension: A Pilot Study. (Neurology, 2026, PMID 42308437): "This pilot study aimed to identify serum microRNA (miRNA) markers associated with a diagnosis of IIH and disease activity and to assess their relevance in the CNS through identification in CSF."
• NEWJun AI-Guided Patient-Derived Endothelial Modeling Identifies a Reversible Moyamoya-Specific miRNA Deficiency Corrected by Stem Cell-Extracellular Vesicles. (Translational stroke research, 2026, PMID 42274939): "We profiled plasma extracellular vesicle (EV)-derived microRNAs (miRNAs) from MMD patients and healthy controls and generated patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cell-derived endothelial cells (iPSC-ECs) to investigate disease-associated molecular alterations and therapeutic reversibility."
• Jul Microarray-Based Identification of Time-Sensitive miRNAs as Serum Quality Indicators in Liquid Biopsy. (Genes to cells : devoted to molecular & cellular mechanisms, 2026, PMID 42246163): "In this study, we aimed to develop a comprehensive set of miRNA markers to assess the serum quality, which fluctuates depending on the storage duration after blood collection."
• May Evaluation of serum microRNA-9-5p expression and its predicted target genes as potential biomarkers for breast cancer. (Breast cancer (Tokyo, Japan), 2026, PMID 42213364): "MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as promising candidates due to their key regulatory roles in gene expression and their diagnostic and prognostic potential."
• May Time-resolved Hippo-YAP transcript and microRNA responses to imatinib in K562 chronic myeloid leukemia cells with exploratory analysis of CD34⁺ progenitor transcriptomes. (Molecular biology reports, 2026, PMID 42201499): "We investigated whether imatinib induces time-dependent Hippo-YAP transcript changes and delayed microRNA alterations in K562 cells."