Roles of extracellular vesicles associated non-coding RNAs in Diabetes Mellitus

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), especially exosomes (50 to 150 nm), have been shown to play important roles in a wide range of physiological and pathological processes, including metabolic diseases such as Diabetes Mellitus (DM). In the last decade, several studies have demonstrated how EVs are involved in cell-to-cell communication. EVs are enriched in proteins, mRNAs and non-coding RNAs (miRNAs, long non-coding RNAs and circRNAS, among others) which are transferred to recipient cells and may have a profound impact in either their survival or functionality. Several studies have pointed out the contribution of exosomal miRNAs, such as miR-l42-3p and miR-26, in the development of Type 1 and Type 2 DM (T1DM and T2DM), respectively. In addition, some miRNA families such as miR-let7 and miR-29 found in exosomes have been associated with both types of diabetes, suggesting that they share common etiological features. The knowledge about the role of exosomal long non-coding RNAs in this group of diseases is more immature, but the exosomal lncRNA MALAT1 has been found to be elevated in the plasma of individuals with T2DM, while more than 169 lncRNAs were reported to be differentially expressed between healthy donors and people with T1DM. Here, we review the current knowledge about exosomal non-coding RNAs in DM and discuss their potential as novel biomarkers and possible therapeutic targets.