ncRNA2MetS v2.0: a manually curated database for metabolic syndrome-associated ncRNAs

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its five characteristic diseases (central obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, reduced high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) pose a serious threat to human health. In order to help explore the relationship between non-coding RNA (ncRNA) and metabolic syndrome, it is urgent to collect and organize ncRNA data related to metabolic syndrome.

To solve the problems, a research team led by Dengju YAO published their new research on 15 June 2025 in Frontiers of Computer Science co-published by Higher Education Press and Springer Nature.

The team collected the most comprehensive MetS-associated ncRNA data and constructed the ncRNA2MetS v2.0 database. They also developed a user-friendly website consisting of 8 sections: the HOME, BROWSE, SEARCH, SUBMIT, STATISTICS, INTERACTION NETWORK, DOWNLOAD, and HELP page.

In this research, they first searched the PubMed database and obtained over 4,000 articles published between 2007 and 2024. After manual screening, only 2,750 articles that truly focused on MetS-associated ncRNAs were retained. Next, they read each article in detail and extracted the MetS-associated ncRNA information within it. Throughout this procedure, they exclusively collected MetS-associated ncRNA information that had been verified by various biological experiments. As a result, 1505 associations between metabolic syndrome and its five characteristic diseases and three types of ncRNAs were included in the ncRNA2MetS v2.0 database.

They hope that the ncRNA2MetS v2.0 can facilitate researchers to study on mechanism of ncRNA in metabolic syndrome and its characteristic disease.