MicroRNA in kidney disease

Abstract Clinical and laboratory findings of kidney disease in an adult may find an explanation in kidney functional and/or structural abnormalities that already existed during infancy and childhood, but that may have been missed or underdiagnosed. All the cardiovascular abnormalities that occur in adults with chronic kidney disease are also present in children with chronic kidney disease. Complications in childhood chronic kidney disease will have consequences well beyond pediatric age and influence outcomes of affected young adults with disease. Kidney dysfunction appears early in the course of kidney disease and has been observed in children and adults with chronic kidney disease, condition characterised with kidney fibrosis. Transforming growth factor beta is recognized as a major mediator of kidney fibrosis. New evidence illustrates the relationship between transforming growth factor beta signaling and microRNAs expression during kidney diseases development. MicroRNAs play important roles in kidney development and kidney diseases; they are naturally occurring, 22-nucleotide, noncoding RNAs that mediate posttranscriptional gene regulation. Dysregulation of miRNA expression is an indicator of several diseases including chronic kidney disease. Targeting microRNAs should be a therapeutic potential to ameliorate the disease related to fibrosis. The discovery that circulating miRNAs are detectable in serum and plasma, and that their expression varies as a result of disease, presents great potential to be used as biomarkers in kidney disease prevention and diagnosis.