Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Jun 6:16:1596767.
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1596767. eCollection 2025.

Mechanism of action and potential therapeutic targets of TGF-β-related signaling pathway and its downstream miRNA expression in pulmonary arterial hypertension

Yimo Huang  1 , Wende Ma  1 , Cen Guo  1   2 , Xiaoling Su  2
Affiliations
Review

Mechanism of action and potential therapeutic targets of TGF-β-related signaling pathway and its downstream miRNA expression in pulmonary arterial hypertension

Yimo Huang et al. Front Pharmacol. .

Abstract

Pulmonary hypertension is a major cardiovascular disease characterized by the persistent elevation of pulmonary artery pressure, leading to vascular remodeling, fibrosis, and endothelial dysfunction. In recent years, the TGF-β signaling pathway and miRNAs have played important roles in the pathogenesis of PH. TGF-β regulates the proliferation, migration and fibrosis of vascular smooth muscle cells through the classical Smad pathway and non-classical pathways such as PI3K/Akt and MAPK. miRNAs such as miR-21, miR-145, and miR-204 play key roles. Among them, miR-21 promotes the proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells, miR-145 inhibits the overproliferation and fibrosis of vascular smooth muscle cells, and miR-204 alleviates vascular remodeling by inhibiting TGF-β signaling. The combination of CRISPR gene editing and an exosome delivery system can precisely regulate miRNA expression, thus providing new therapeutic targets for pulmonary hypertension.

Keywords: CRISPR; TGF-β; exosomes; miRNA; personalized therapy; pulmonary hypertension.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Mechanism of TGF-β signaling pathway in pulmonary arterial hypertension.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
The role of miRNAs in pulmonary arterial hypertension.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Personalized therapy and CRISPR gene editing combined with exosome delivery system for pulmonary arterial hypertension treatment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abdallah F., Henriet E., Suet A., Arar A., Clemençon R., Malinge J.-M., et al. (2021). miR-21-3p/IL-22 axes are major drivers of psoriasis pathogenesis by modulating keratinocytes proliferation-survival balance and inflammatory response. Cells 10 (10), 2547. 10.3390/cells10102547 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Adu‐Amankwaah J., You Q., Liu X., Jiang J., Yang D., Liu K., et al. (2025). Pulmonary hypertension: molecular mechanisms and clinical studies. Medcomm 6 (3), e70134. 10.1002/mco2.70134 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Agarwal S., Fineman J., Cornfield D. N., Alvira C. M., Zamanian R. T., Goss K., et al. (2024). Seeing pulmonary hypertension through a paediatric lens: a viewpoint. Eur. Respir. J. 63 (6), 2301518. 10.1183/13993003.01518-2023 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ahmadi-Hadad A., de Queiroz P. C. C., Schettini F., Giuliano M. (2024). Reawakening the master switches in triple-negative breast cancer: a strategic blueprint for confronting metastasis and chemoresistance via microRNA-200/205: a systematic review. Crit. Rev. Oncol. Hematol. 204, 104516. 10.1016/j.critrevonc.2024.104516 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ajila V., Colley L., Ste-Croix D. T., Nissan N., Golshani A., Cober E. R., et al. (2023). P-TarPmiR accurately predicts plant-specific miRNA targets. Sci. Rep. 13, 332. 10.1038/s41598-022-27283-8 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources