Going circular: history, present, and future of circRNAs in cancer.

Pisignano, Giuseppina; Michael, David C; Pirlog, Radu; Visal, Tanvi H; Ladomery, Michael; Calin, George A

Abstract

To date, thousands of highly abundant and conserved single-stranded RNA molecules shaped into ring structures (circRNAs) have been identified. CircRNAs are multifunctional molecules that have been shown to regulate gene expression transcriptionally and post-transcriptionally and exhibit distinct tissue- and development-specific expression patterns associated with a variety of normal and disease conditions, including cancer pathogenesis. Over the past years, due to their intrinsic stability and resistance to ribonucleases, particular attention has been drawn to their use as reliable diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. However, there are some critical caveats to their utility in the clinic. Their circular shape limits their annotation and a complete functional elucidation is lacking. This makes their detection and biomedical application still challenging. Herein, we review the current knowledge of circRNA biogenesis and function, and of their involvement in tumorigenesis and potential utility in cancer-targeted therapy. [Abstract copyright: © 2023. The Author(s).]

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 10, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Aug 16, 2023
• Publication Date: Sep 15, 2023
• Deposit Date: Aug 17, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 28, 2023
• Journal: Oncogene
• Print ISSN: 0950-9232
• Publisher: Springer Nature [academic journals on nature.com]
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 42
• Pages: 2783–2800
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-023-02780-w
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11044130
• Publisher URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41388-023-02780-w