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Gene & Protein in Disease circRNAs and cancer

these circRNAs for a particular cancer type. Theoretically, All authors made substantial, direct, and intellectual
although circRNA acts as a miRNA sponge, the miRNA contributions to the work and approved the paper for
may target several genes, indicating that a circRNA may publication.
modulate the expression of hundreds of genes. As a result,
it is doubtful that a circRNA would be entirely specific for Ethics approval and consent to participate
a particular cancer type. The most likely scenario is that Not applicable.
circRNAs are either a common driving mechanism or
by- or end-product of oncogenesis. Consent for publication
However, circRNAs may still be valuable as cancer All authors consent to publication.
biomarkers, just not for a particular type of cancer. In
clinical settings, diagnosing specific cancer depends on Availability of data
clinical phenotypes and other data to analyze a particular Not applicable.
malignancy. According to this, circRNAs could benefit in
diagnosing several malignancies if combined with other References
factors or biomarkers.
1. Mercer TR, Dinger ME, Mattick JS, 2009, Long non-coding
In conclusion, circRNAs are a type of regulatory RNA RNAs: Insights into functions. Nat Rev Genet, 10(3):155–159.
that are highly expressed and functionally involved in https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg2521
cellular processes, suggesting that they may have a role in
the emergence of several disorders, including cancer. Due to 2. Consortium EP, 2012, An integrated encyclopedia of DNA
their ectopic expression in cancer, the current research has elements in the human genome. Nature, 489, 57–74.
established that these circRNAs are essential in designing the 3. Pelechano V, Steinmetz LM, 2013, Gene regulation by
approaches to investigate them in diagnosis and anticancer antisense transcription. Nat Rev Genet, 14(12): 880–893.
therapies. In this paper, we highlight and urge the design of https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3594
advanced techniques to evaluate the critical roles of circRNAs 4. Memczak S, Jens M, Elefsinioti A, et al., 2013, Circular RNAs
in modulating cellular processes such as cell proliferation, are a large class of animal RNAs with regulatory potency.
migration, invasion, apoptosis, and autophagy for a better Nature, 495(7441): 333–338.
picture of their involvement in cancer development.
Considering the critical applications of circRNAs and the https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11928
potential to provide the template for designing anticancer 5. Conn SJ, Pillman KA, Toubia J, et al., 2015, The RNA
drugs, we anticipate that using circRNAs in clinical sittings binding protein quaking regulates formation of circRNAs.
will shortly lead to a breakthrough in cancer therapy. Cell, 160(6): 1125–1134.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2015.02.014
Acknowledgments
6. Huang C, Shan G, 2015, What happens at or after
None. transcription: Insights into circRNA biogenesis and
function. Transcription, 6(4): 61–64.
Funding
https://doi.org/10.1080/21541264.2015.1071301
This work was supported by the National Natural Science 7. Chen N, Zhao G, Yan X, et al., 2018, A novel FLI1 exonic
Foundation of China (No. 31371386).
circular RNA promotes metastasis in breast cancer by
Conflict of interest coordinately regulating TET1 and DNMT1. Genome Biol,
19(1): 218.
All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-018-1594-y
Author contributions 8. Zhao X, Cai Y, Xu J, 2019, Circular RNAs: Biogenesis,
mechanism, and function in human cancers. Int J Mol Sci,
Conceptualization: Faiz Ali Khan and Shaoping Ji 20(16): 3926.
Supervision: Weijuan Zhang and Wenqiang Wei
Visualization: Faiz Ali Khan https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20163926
Writing – original draft: Faiz Ali Khan 9. Khan FA, Nsengimana B, Khan NH, et al., 2022, Chimeric
Writing – review & editing: Faiz Ali Khan, Bernard peptides/proteins encoded by circRNA: An update on
Nsengimana, Nazeer Hussain Khan, Jingjing Huang, Haojie mechanisms and functions in human cancers. Front Oncol,
Guo, Usman Ayub Awan, Weijuan Zhang, and Wenqiang 12: 781270.
Wei https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2022.781270

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2022) 11 https://doi.org/10.36922/gpd.v1i2.138