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
. 2022 Nov;13(6):e1723.
doi: 10.1002/wrna.1723. Epub 2022 Feb 22.

Circular RNA in disease: Basic properties and biomedical relevance

Xiaolan Chen  1   2 , Min Zhou  1   2 , Levi Yant  3 , Chuan Huang  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Circular RNA in disease: Basic properties and biomedical relevance

Xiaolan Chen et al. Wiley Interdiscip Rev RNA. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) represent a class of covalently closed RNA molecules with great diversity in molecular features, functions, and regulatory mechanisms. Emerging advances in our understanding of circRNA biogenesis, nuclear export, and stability control have been made very recently. In particular, novel roles of circRNAs in diverse human diseases are increasingly recognized. Various circRNAs have been found to affect many disease-relevant pathways through a diverse array of mechanisms, including forming R-loops, sponging miRNAs or proteins, and translating functional proteins, resulting in different pathological phenotypes. This recent progress calls for a revised view of circRNAs in diseases threatening the lives and health of humans. In this review, we focus on the recently described functional relevance of disease-associated circRNAs as well as the potential of circRNAs in diverse clinical applications. This article is categorized under: RNA in Disease and Development > RNA in Disease Regulatory RNAs/RNAi/Riboswitches > Regulatory RNAs.

Keywords: circular RNA; clinical application; nonimmunological disease.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Abudayyeh, O. O., Gootenberg, J. S., Essletzbichler, P., Han, S., Joung, J., Belanto, J. J., Verdine, V., Cox, D. B. T., Kellner, M. J., Regev, A., Lander, E. S., Voytas, D. F., Ting, A. Y., & Zhang, F. (2017). RNA targeting with CRISPR-Cas13. Nature, 550(7675), 280-284. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24049
    1. Aktaş, T., Avşar Ilık, İ., Maticzka, D., Bhardwaj, V., Pessoa Rodrigues, C., Mittler, G., Manke, T., Backofen, R., & Akhtar, A. (2017). DHX9 suppresses RNA processing defects originating from the Alu invasion of the human genome. Nature, 544(7648), 115. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature21715
    1. Arcinas, C., Tan, W., Fang, W., Desai, T. P., Teh, D. C. S., Degirmenci, U., Xu, D., Foo, R., & Sun, L. (2019). Adipose circular RNAs exhibit dynamic regulation in obesity and functional role in adipogenesis. Nature Metabolism, 1(7), 688-703. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-019-0078-z
    1. Ashwal-Fluss, R., Meyer, M., Pamudurti, N. R., Ivanov, A., Bartok, O., Hanan, M., Evantal, N., Memczak, S., Rajewsky, N., & Kadener, S. (2014). circRNA biogenesis competes with pre-mRNA splicing. Molecular Cell, 56(1), 55-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2014.08.019
    1. Bai, Y., Zhang, Y., Han, B., Yang, L., Chen, X., Huang, R., Wu, F., Chao, J., Liu, P., Hu, G., Zhang, J. H., & Yao, H. (2018). Circular RNA DLGAP4 ameliorates ischemic stroke outcomes by targeting miR-143 to regulate endothelial-mesenchymal transition associated with blood-Brain barrier integrity. The Journal of Neuroscience, 38(1), 32-50. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1348-17.2017

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources