Work

Beyond the paradox: Cardiac‐specific miR‐106a delivery as a translational turning point for heart failure?

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Heart failure (HF) remains a global health burden and a leading cause of death and disability.In Asia, HF prevalence is projected to reach 74.5 million by 2050, a 127.6% increase from 2025, 1 driven by rising cardiometabolic disease across the region.While current therapies target haemodynamic impairment and pathological neurohormonal hyperactivation, they offer limited benefit against progressive myocardial decline and cardiovascular mortality.Novel therapeutics are urgently needed to overcome challenges of poor tissue specificity, limited intracellular delivery and suboptimal pharmacokinetics.MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs, typically 20-24 nucleotides long, that regulate key posttranscriptional gene expression by binding to complementary sequences in messenger RNAs (mRNAs), leading to mRNA degradation or inhibition of translation.MiR-NAs have recently emerged as promising biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets in HF.Their clinical translation, however, hinges on precise delivery to minimize off-target effects and enhancing biodistribution.In this context, Lu et al. recently reported a cardiac targeting peptide (CTP; 12-amino acid sequence APWHLSSQYSRT) conjugated to miR-106a (CTP-miR-106a), which reversed cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction in an angiotensin II/isoproterenol-induced mouse model of HF. 2 This study builds on prior in vitro evidence demonstrating that

Source: Clinical and Translational Discovery

DOI: 10.1002/ctd2.70084

Author: Wei‐Wen Lim

Institutions: National University of Singapore, Duke-NUS Medical School, National Heart Centre Singapore

Language: English

Topic: RNA Interference and Gene Delivery

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,420