Overview

• Massachusetts General Hospital teams are engineering novel delivery platforms alongside Cas13-based RNA editors to upregulate tRNA-Asp-GTC-3'tDR in diseased tissues.
• Ongoing preclinical studies in kidney and heart injury models are assessing safety profiles, RNA stability and treatment durability of the new platforms.
• This effort builds on earlier findings that the tRNA fragment’s G-quadruplex fold binds autophagy proteins to reduce inflammation, scarring and cell death in kidney disease.
• Machine learning–guided reagents now allow selective silencing or augmentation of the protective tRNA fragment to refine its therapeutic potential.
• Researchers plan to translate these molecular tools into RNA-based interventions for chronic kidney disease, which currently lacks curative treatments.