RNA N6-methyladenosine modifications and potential targeted therapeutic strategies in kidney disease

Epigenetic modifications have received increasing attention and have been shown to be extensively involved in kidney development and disease progression. Among them, the most common RNA modification, N-6-methyladenosine (m(6)A), has been shown to dynamically and reversibly exert its functions in multiple ways, including splicing, export, decay and translation initiation efficiency to regulate mRNA fate. Moreover, m(6)A has also been reported to exert biological effects by destabilizing base pairing to modulate various functions of RNAs. Most importantly, an increasing number of kidney diseases, such as renal cell carcinoma, acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease, have been found to be associated with aberrant m(6)A patterns. In this review, we comprehensively review the critical roles of m(6)A in kidney diseases and discuss the possibilities and relevance of m(6)A-targeted epigenetic therapy, with an integrated comprehensive description of the detailed alterations in specific loci that contribute to cellular processes that are associated with kidney diseases.