Circular RNAs modulate cancer drug resistance: advances and challenges

Abstract

Acquired drug resistance is a main factor contributing to cancer therapy failure and high cancer mortality, highlighting the necessity to develop novel intervention targets. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), an abundant class of RNA molecules with a closed loop structure, possess characteristics including high stability, which provide unique advantages in clinical application. Growing evidence indicates that aberrantly expressed circRNAs are associated with resistance against various cancer treatments, including targeted therapy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy. Therefore, targeting these aberrant circRNAs may offer a strategy to improve the efficiency of cancer therapy. Herein, we present a summary of the most recently studied circRNAs and their regulatory roles on cancer drug resistance. With the advances in artificial intelligence (AI)-based bioinformatics algorithms, circRNAs could emerge as promising biomarkers and intervention targets in cancer therapy.

Keywords: AI-based bioinformatics algorithms; CircRNAs; Drug resistance; biomarkers; cancer therapy.

Figure 1

Clinical significance and application of circRNAs. This diagram illustrates the various roles and functions of circRNAs in biological systems. A large number of dysregulated circRNAs and their expression patterns are associated with the progression of multiple cancers, emerging as diagnostic biomarkers and pathological intervention targets. Additionally, circRNAs show the potential to serve as antisense RNAs to interfere with transcription processes, act as aptamers or translational templates to regulate protein expression, and either activate or inhibit immune responses. circRNAs: Circular RNAs.