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Gene & Protein in Disease                                                         circRNAs and cancer


































            Figure 2. Anti-cancers drug-resistant circRNAs in various malignancies. Differential expression of each circRNA promotes the resistance to one or multiple
            drugs results in activation of the respective pathway and affects anticancer treatment efficacy, by altering cancer cell properties and/or drug distribution.
            The illustrated circRNAs act mainly as miRNA sponges, leading to up-/down-regulation of the downstream targets of these miRNAs. Other modes of
            action of circRNAs affecting the expression of key proteins implicated in therapy resistance.

            the importance of such procedures and provide crucial   samples makes them promising biomarkers for disease
            information on how circRNAs function and are active.  diagnosis,  particularly  for the onset,  progression, and
                                                               prognosis of cancer. Identification of circRNA biomarkers
            6. CircRNAs: Toward a unified nomenclature         in blood and saliva and in other clinical samples such as
            CircRNAs are becoming essential indicators of disease,   urine and cerebrospinal fluid would be feasible in further
            particularly in cancer, necessitating a unified naming   research. More crucially, research on circRNAs opens up
            scheme. In addition, developing new biochemical    a new path for treating diseases, with the circularization
            methods and bioinformatic methodologies add to the   of RNA being the eventual goal for treating illness. For
            evidence for distinguishing and classifying circRNAs. The   instance, in the future, the  overexpression of artificial
            current terminology is based on circBase, which includes   circRNA can function as a “super-sponge” or can be used
            a numeric code and species information. In contrast,   to  silent  the  circRNAs  in  cells  to  remodel  and  alter  the
            circBank and circles build a circRNA annotation based   expression profile of miRNAs and other RNAs, or RBP
            on UCSC  genomic  coordinates  (https://genome.ucsc.  levels can increase the activities of a suppressor gene in the
            edu/) using the gene symbol of the transcript. CIRCpedia   context of cancer therapy. Although circRNAs have been
            uses a distinctive name scheme that incorporates both the   the subject of several research studies, little is known about
            species and a circBase internal identification number. In   the biological and molecular processes by which circRNAs
            addition, circRNAs have been classified using a unique   contribute to cancer development. Therefore, finding
            vocabulary. The species is indicated by the first few letters   numerous additional circRNAs implicated in diseases and
            of the gene name, the exons involved in the circularization,   investigating their functional motifs and target locations
            and the gene name: For example, exons of the hsa-circ gene   will be essential.
            (exons7-8) [167] .                                   The practical use of circRNAs in clinics still has a

            7. Conclusion and perspectives                     long way to go as the field of circRNA research is still in
                                                               its infancy. CircRNAs alone will not be sufficient to serve
            circRNAs have a wide range of functional possibilities   as precise biomarkers for any particular malignancy.
            due to their active roles as miRNA sponges, RBP sponges,   Despite some reports that certain circRNAs are specific for
            and transcriptional regulators in the modulation of   individual cancers, the level of these circRNAs in the other
            protein-coding gene expression. The fact that circRNAs   cancer types has not been determined by any studies, and
            are abundantly available in saliva, exosomes, and blood   this underlies the current uncertainty and specificity of


            Volume 1 Issue 2 (2022)                         10                     https://doi.org/10.36922/gpd.v1i2.138
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