Consistently, the fact that the study by Wang et al. showed that an upregulated MALAT1, through interactions with miR-425 and subsequently, PTEN, was found to associate with ARDS, suggests that the MALAT1/miR-425/PTEN axis signalling network is a potential therapeutic target for ARDS treatment (Wang et al., 2019a). Here, PTEN is linked to acute respiratory distress syndrome.