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The development trend of microRNA patents from the perspective of the Nobel Prize

XIANG Qiang-Yu¹, WU Zong-Zhen¹, ZHANG Lu¹, LIU Huan^1,2,*

¹University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China；²State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan 430072, China

Abstract

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of the central role of microRNA (miRNA) in gene regulation. Based on the Derwent Innovation patent database and combined with the Derwent Data Analyzer tool, this study conducted a multidimensional analysis of 57232 patent entries in the field of miRNA, revealing the global technological innovation pattern and dynamic evolution trend in this field. Analysis shows that miRNA technology has entered a rapid growth stage since 2002, and reached the peak of patent applications in 2022, and its research hotspots are concentrated in the fields of tumor therapy, gene therapy, molecular diagnosis and nucleic acid drug development. In the global patent distribution, China and the United States occupy the dominant position, and universities, scientific research institutions and enterprises constitute the main force of technological innovation. Network analysis of patentees and inventors reveals the importance of collaborative innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration in driving technological development. In addition, the analysis of patent keywords and classification code shows that miRNA technology has significant potential in the research and development of cancer-related biomarkers and the mining of therapeutic targets, while delivery technology and nucleic acid modification have become the key directions to break the technical bottleneck. In the future, miRNA technology will be more widely used in precision medicine, nucleic acid drug delivery and gene therapy. Delivery technologies such as lipid nanoparticles and extracellular vesicles, as well as AI-driven target mining, will significantly accelerate the clinical application of miRNA drugs. From the perspective of patents, this study provides important theoretical basis and data support for basic research and industrial development in the field of miRNA.

Key words: microRNA; patent analysis; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; situation analysis

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DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2026.0056

Citing This Article：

XIANG Qiang-Yu, WU Zong-Zhen, ZHANG Lu, LIU Huan. The development trend of microRNA patents from the perspective of the Nobel Prize. Acta Physiol Sin 2026; 78 (3): 665-676 (in Chinese with English abstract).