Diabetes Complications: The MicroRNA Perspective

There remains a critical need to better understandthe underlying disease mechanisms responsiblefor diabetes complications in order to developnew and improved therapeutic strategies for these chronic conditions. These complications are broadly classified as microvascular, including neuropathy, nephrop-athy, and retinopathy, or macrovascular, including car-diovascular and peripheral vascular disease. The risk for developing complications is influenced by many factors including duration of diabetes and genetic factors. Current treatments have resulted in only a partial reduction in this risk, and the management of these conditions remains a major unmet need for those with diabetes. New insights have come from an unlikely ally, the worm C. elegans, in which research has identified a novel family of endoge-nous, small (;22 nucleotides), single stranded, noncoding RNA molecules known as microRNAs (miRNAs) as de-velopmental regulators (1,2). These molecules, only iden-