Targeting LncRNAs with CRISPR/Cas9 for Kidney Therapeutics: A Review

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as key players in the pathogenesis of kidney diseases, including acute kidney injury (AKI), AKI-to-chronic kidney disease (CKD) transition, CKD, diabetic kidney disease (DKD), renal cell carcinoma (RCC), polycystic kidney diseases (PKD), and lupus nephritis (LN). Although the roles of lncRNAs in disease progression have been investigated in preclinical models, their underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. The therapeutic potential of lncRNA-based therapies remains largely unexplored in clinical settings. Recently, an advancement in clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) gene-editing technology offers a novel strategy for treating sickle cell anemia and β-thalassemia. Additionally, CRISPR/Cas9 is currently being evaluated in clinical trials for various diseases, including kidney diseases like RCC. However, the application of CRISPR/Cas9 to target lncRNAs is still in the early stages. Preclinical experiments have revealed that CRISPR/Cas9 could effectively target lncRNAs in kidney disorders. However, its clinical translation in AKI and CKD conditions remains unclear, and various biological challenges remain to be addressed. This review aims to investigate advancements in CRISPR/Cas9 that target lncRNAs in the kidney, highlighting the limitations and future directions for advancing CRISPR/Cas9-based lncRNA therapy and translating these findings into clinical applications.