Gupta Gaurav, Goyal Ahsas, Ilma Baby, Rekha M M, Nayak Priya Priyadarshini, Kaur Mandeep, Khachi Anil, Goyal Kavita, Rana Mohit, Rekha A, Chang Dennis, Dua Kamal
Centre for Research Impact & Outcome, Chitkara College of Pharmacy, Chitkara University, Rajpura, Punjab, 140401, India.
Centre of Medical and Bio-allied Health Sciences Research, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates.
Mol Biol Rep. 2025 Jun 12;52(1):585. doi: 10.1007/s11033-025-10687-w.
Silicosis, a form of lung fibrosis (LF), remains a major global health concern because there are few effective ways to diagnose or treat it. Due to their potential function as diagnostic markers and modulators of cancer, exosomal miRNAs are notably featured in more recent advancements. Such exosomal miRNAs offer an invasive approach to diagnosing an illness’s early and accurate nature as they are more stable and measurable in biofluids while illustrating novel cellular changes. Their roles point out this capacity to alter specific molecular processes related to the development of silicosis, such as inflammation, fibrosis, and immunomodulation. Hence, it is possible to find therapeutic targets to decrease fibrosis and diagnostic markers to assess the progression of the disease in these molecules. Recent studies indicate they are involved in fibroblast to myofibroblast transition, macrophage activation in silica, and aberrant signalling such as TGF-β and NF-κB. Delivery methods to employ exosomal miRNAs for therapeutic purposes, including replenishment of beneficial miRNAs and targeted change of detrimental ones, are being developed based on these findings. Nevertheless, when these developments apply to these discoveries in clinical practice, questions about factors such as possible scale, standardisation, and targeting services distribution arise. The diagnostic and treatment possibilities of exosomal miRNAs in LF connected to silicosis are investigated in the present study, with characteristics of revolutionary values and gaps filling the current scale of knowledge in the treatment of silicosis and other similar diseases.
矽肺是肺纤维化（LF）的一种形式，仍然是全球主要的健康问题，因为几乎没有有效的诊断或治疗方法。由于外泌体微小RNA（miRNA）具有作为癌症诊断标志物和调节剂的潜在功能，它们在最近的研究进展中备受关注。这些外泌体miRNA提供了一种侵入性较小的方法来早期准确地诊断疾病，因为它们在生物流体中更稳定且可测量，同时还能揭示新的细胞变化。它们的作用表明其具有改变与矽肺发展相关的特定分子过程的能力，如炎症、纤维化和免疫调节。因此，有可能在这些分子中找到减少纤维化的治疗靶点和评估疾病进展的诊断标志物。最近的研究表明，它们参与成纤维细胞向肌成纤维细胞的转变、二氧化硅中的巨噬细胞激活以及诸如转化生长因子-β（TGF-β）和核因子-κB（NF-κB）等异常信号传导。基于这些发现，正在开发将外泌体miRNA用于治疗目的的递送方法，包括补充有益的miRNA和靶向改变有害的miRNA。然而，当这些进展应用于临床实践中的这些发现时，就会出现关于可能的规模、标准化和靶向服务分配等因素的问题。本研究调查了与矽肺相关的外泌体miRNA在肺纤维化中的诊断和治疗可能性，其具有革命性价值的特征，并填补了目前矽肺及其他类似疾病治疗知识范围内的空白。
