Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Aug 3;14(8):1028-1034.
doi: 10.1080/15476286.2016.1255398. Epub 2016 Nov 28.

CircRNAs in the brain

Mor Hanan  1 , Hermona Soreq  1   2 , Sebastian Kadener  1
Affiliations
Review

CircRNAs in the brain

Mor Hanan et al. RNA Biol. .

Abstract

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are highly abundant and evolutionarily conserved non-coding RNAs produced by circularization of specific exons. Since their re-discovery as potential regulators of gene expression, thousands of circRNAs were detected in different tissues and cell types across most organisms. Accumulating data suggest key roles for them in the central nervous system. Neuronal-expressed RNAs are diverted to yield highly enriched CircRNAs in human, mouse, pig and flies, with many of them enriched in neuronal tissues. CircRNA levels are dynamically modulated in neurons, both during differentiation and following bursts of electrical activity, and accumulate with age, and many of them are enriched in synapses. Together, available data suggest that circRNAs have important roles in synaptic plasticity and neuronal function. This review covers current advances in the field and lays out hypotheses regarding functions of circRNAs in the brain as well as their putative involvement in initiation and progression of neurodegenerative processes.

Keywords: Brain; circRNA; development; neurodegeneration; neuronal-function; synapse.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
A schematic drawing of circRNA biogenesis. CircRNAs are generated co-transcriptionally via a special splicing event termed ‘back-splicing’. The circularization event is facilitated by base-pairing of intronic sequences that include highly complementary regions and produce stable circular molecules that are transported to the cytoplasm and other cellular compartments.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Possible functions of circRNAs in the brain. (1) CircRNAs may be transcribed upon stressful insults and serve as “memory” molecules, as they are extremely stable. (2) CircRNAs can serve as templates for translation into proteins, in the cytoplasm or in synapses. (3) CircRNAs can act as miRNA sponges. (4) Active transport to the synapse or dendrites may utilize circRNAs as transport-hubs for RNA-binding proteins. (5) CircRNAs may encode information that can be stored or even passed on between cells.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Raj B, Blencowe BJ. Alternative Splicing in the Mammalian Nervous System: Recent Insights into Mechanisms and Functional Roles. Neuron 2015; 87:14-27; PMID:26139367; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.05.004 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zhang XO, Wang HB, Zhang Y, Lu X, Chen LL, Yang L. Complementary sequence-mediated exon circularization. Cell 2014; 159:134-47; PMID:25242744; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.09.001 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Li Q, Lee JA, Black DL. Neuronal regulation of alternative pre-mRNA splicing. Nat Rev Neurosci 2007; 8:819-31; PMID:17895907; https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2237 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Renton AE, Majounie E, Waite A, Simon-Sanchez J, Rollinson S, Gibbs JR, Schymick JC, Laaksovirta H, van Swieten JC, Myllykangas L, et al.. A hexanucleotide repeat expansion in C9ORF72 is the cause of chromosome 9p21-linked ALS-FTD. Neuron 2011; 72:257-68; PMID:21944779; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.09.010 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Berson A, Barbash S, Shaltiel G, Goll Y, Hanin G, Greenberg DS, Ketzef M, Becker AJ, Friedman A, Soreq H. Cholinergic-associated loss of hnRNP-A/B in Alzheimer's disease impairs cortical splicing and cognitive function in mice. EMBO Mol Med 2012; 4:730-42; PMID:22628224; https://doi.org/10.1002/emmm.201100995 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources