Another recent study found that circ-ZNF609 encodes ZNF609-250aa, a 250-aa novel protein that exacerbates acute kidney injury (AKI) [120,121] by inhibiting autophagic flow and inducing apoptosis via an AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)-dependent mechanism [122]. Here, AKT1 is linked to acute kidney injury.