MicroRNA therapeutic delivery strategies: A review

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs containing 18–25 nucleotides. They exist widely in animals, plants and pathogenic microorganisms. At present, more than 1900 miRNAs have been identified in the human genome and more than 30% of human genes can be regulated by miRNAs. MiRNAs play an important role in growth, cell differentiation, metabolism, regulation of the cell cycle and apoptosis, and are an important class of gene expression regulators. Research has shown that the expression of different miRNAs is closely related to various human diseases, such as metabolic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, etc. MiRNAs have good clinical drug prospects for disease treatment. This review mainly focuses on miRNA carrier delivery systems such as viral vectors and non-viral vectors.