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Review
. 2021 May 31:8:625722.
doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.625722. eCollection 2021.

Circular RNAs Are Promising Biomarkers in Liquid Biopsy for the Diagnosis of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Lanxiang Huang  1   2 , Yuan Rong  1   2 , Xuan Tang  1   2 , Kezhen Yi  1   2 , Jianyuan Wu  3 , Fubing Wang  1   2   4
Affiliations
Review

Circular RNAs Are Promising Biomarkers in Liquid Biopsy for the Diagnosis of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Lanxiang Huang et al. Front Mol Biosci. .

Abstract

The high incidence and mortality of lung cancer make early detection of lung cancer particularly important. At present, the diagnosis of lung cancer mainly depends on diagnostic imaging and tissue biopsy. However, current diagnostics are not satisfactory owing to the low specificity and inability of multiple sampling. Accumulating evidence indicates that circular RNAs (circRNAs) play a critical role in cancer progression and are promising cancer biomarkers. In particular, circRNAs are considered novel specific diagnostic markers for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Liquid biopsy is an important method in the early diagnosis of cancer due to its high sensitivity and specificity, as well as the possibility of performing multiple sampling. circRNAs are stably present in exosomes and sometimes become part of circulating nucleic acids, making them ideal for liquid biopsy. In this review, we summarize the advances in the research on circRNAs in NSCLC, and also highlight their potential applications for NSCLC detection.

Keywords: biomarker; circular RNAs; exosome; liquid biopsy; non-small cell lung cancer.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The functions of circRNAs. In the nucleus, circRNAs can interact with transcription complexes in the promoter region of their host gene to induce gene transcription by interacting with U1 snRNP. circRNAs can directly interact with transcription complexes on host genes to induce their transcription. In the cytoplasm, circRNAs can interact with RBPs and affect their functions and translocations. circRNAs can act as miRNA sponges to inhibit miRNA activity by interacting with miRNA-Ago2 complexes. Some circRNAs have protein-coding capacity and can encode proteins. circRNAs can be loaded into exosomes, released by donor cells, and enter recipient cells through endocytosis, thus modulating gene expression in recipient cells.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
circRNAs are involved in cancer development and progression. circRNAs have been shown to contribute to various aspects of cancer progression, including promoting metastasis, promoting invasion, inducing drug tolerance, inducing immune tolerance, promoting cell proliferation, and promoting angiogenesis.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Potential application of circular RNAs as liquid biopsy biomarkers. circRNA biomarkers can be isolated from blood, as well as from the exosomes in blood. Detection and analysis of circRNAs can be completed using RNA-seq, qPCR, and other methods. circRNAs may serve as potential biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy selection of cancer.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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