More recently, plasma miR-21 has been proposed to be an early marker for diagnosis and identification of diabetic nephropathy in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), as it starts to rise before microalbuminuria in patients with T1DM and has a greater sensitivity (94.1%) and specificity (100%) to identify DN than the urinary albumin/creatinine ratio at level 45 mg/gm with sensitivity of 88.2% and specificity of 89% (194). Here, ALB is linked to type 1 diabetes mellitus.