Circular RNAs in cancer: novel insights into origins, properties, functions and implications

American Journal of Cancer Research

Jie Yang¹  Zhaohui Gong¹  Chengwei Zhou¹  Hui-Kuan Lin¹  Shaomin Wang¹  Jingqiu Li¹  Yanping Le¹  Dazhi Xu¹  Ping Zhou¹ 

关键词: Circular RNA;    microRNA sponge;    anti-cancer;    targeted therapy;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：肿瘤学

来源: e-Century Publishing Corporation

【 摘 要 】

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a large class of RNAs that, unlike linear RNAs, form covalently closed continuous loops and have recently shown huge capabilities as gene regulators in mammals. These circRNAs mainly arise from exons or introns, and are differentially generated by back splicing or lariat introns. Interestingly, they are found to be enormously abundant, evolutionally conserved and relatively stable in cytoplasm. These features confer numerous potential functions to circRNAs, such as acting as microRNA (miRNA) sponges, binding to RNA-associated proteins to form RNA-protein complexes and then regulating gene transcription. Importantly, circRNAs associate with cancer-related miRNAs and the circRNA-miRNA axes are involved in cancer-related pathways. Some synthetic circRNAs have shown the remarkable anti-cancer effects. Though circRNAs are ancient molecules, the huge therapeutic potentials of circRNAs are recently being discovered from the laboratory to the clinic. Here, we review the current understanding of the roles of circRNAs in cancers and the potential implications of circRNAs in cancer targeted therapy.

【 授权许可】

Unknown