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Review
. 2017 Jul 10;8(42):73271-73281.
doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.19154. eCollection 2017 Sep 22.

An emerging function of circRNA-miRNAs-mRNA axis in human diseases

Dawei Rong  1 , Handong Sun  2 , Zhouxiao Li  1 , Shuheng Liu  3 , Chaoxi Dong  1 , Kai Fu  1 , Weiwei Tang  1 , Hongyong Cao  1
Affiliations
Review

An emerging function of circRNA-miRNAs-mRNA axis in human diseases

Dawei Rong et al. Oncotarget. .

Abstract

Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a novel class of long noncoding RNAs, are characterized by a covalently closed continuous loop without 5' or 3' polarities structure and have been widely found in thousands of lives including plants, animals and human beings. Utilizing the high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) technology, recent findings have indicated thata great deal of circRNAs, which are endogenous, stable, widely expressed in mammalian cells, often exhibit cell type-specific, tissue-specific or developmental-stage-specific expression. Evidences are arising that some circRNAs might regulate microRNA (miRNA) function as microRNA sponges and play a significant role in transcriptional control. circRNAs associate with related miRNAs and the circRNA-miRNA axes are involved in a serious of disease pathways such as apoptosis, vascularization, invasion and metastasis. In this review, we generalize and analyse the aspects including synthesis, characteristics, classification, and several regulatory functions of circRNAs and highlight the association between circRNAs dysregulation by circRNA-miRNA-mRNA axis and sorts of diseases including cancer- related and non-cancer diseases."

Keywords: back-splicing; circular RNA; microRNA sponge; tumorgenesis.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Biogenesis of circular RNAs in human diseases
Figure 2
Figure 2. Diagrammatic drawing of circRNA classification
(a) Sense or exonic, CircRNAs may contain just one or multiple exons which come from a linear transcript on the same strand, they show the probability for alternatively spliced isoforms. (b) Intronic, they may derive wholly from an intron of the linear transcript depend on a crucial motif which contain a 7-nt GU-rich element close to 11-nt C-rich element and an the 5splice site near the branch point. (c) Antisense, if it overlaps one or more exons of the linear sequence on the opposite strand. (d) Intragenic or Bidirectional, when circRNAs is transcribed from same gene locus of the linear sequence not classified as ‘sense’ and ‘intronic’ and whereas in close genomic proximity. (e) Intergenic, when it is located between the genomic interval of two genes.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Schematic diagram of circRNAs functioning as miRNA sponges or competing endogenous RNAs
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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