Extracellular RNA in kidney disease: moving slowly but surely from bench to bedside

We have known for just over a decade that functional RNA is shuttled between cells (Nat. Cell Biol. (2007) 9, 654–659). In that short time, there have been countless reports of extracellular RNA (exRNA) and extracellular vesicles (EVs) participating in diverse biological processes in development (Dev. Cell (2017) 40, 95–103), homoeostasis (Nature (2017) 542, 450–455) and disease (Nature (2017) 546, 498–503). Unsurprisingly – as these disciplines are still in their infancies – most of this work is still in the ‘discovery biology’ phase. However, exRNA and EVs show promise as disease biomarkers and could be harnessed in novel therapies.