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Review
. 2016 Aug 18:7:355.
doi: 10.3389/fphys.2016.00355. eCollection 2016.

Circular RNAs as Promising Biomarkers: A Mini-Review

Nadiah Abu  1 , Rahman Jamal  1
Affiliations
Review

Circular RNAs as Promising Biomarkers: A Mini-Review

Nadiah Abu et al. Front Physiol. .

Abstract

The interest in circular RNAs has resurfaced in the past few years. What was considered as "junk" for nearly two decades is now one of the most interesting molecules. Circular RNAs are non-coding RNAs that are formed by back-splicing events and have covalently closed loops with no poly-adenylated tails. The regulation of circular RNAs is distinctive and they are selectively abundant in different types of tissues. Based on the current knowledge of circular RNAs, these molecules have the potential to be the "next big thing" especially as biomarkers for different diseases. This mini-review attempts to concisely look at the biology of circular RNAs, the putative functional activities, the prevalence of circular RNAs, and the possible role of circular RNA as biomarkers for diagnosis or measuring drug response.

Keywords: biomarker; cancer; circular RNAs; targeted therapies.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A schematic proposition on how circular RNAs function and are transported around the cellular system. There are many possibilities to the function of circular RNAs such as sponging miRNA, binding to RNA binding proteins, being packaged into extracellular vesicles and exosomes and assisting in protein translation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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