{"title":"Cellular functions and biomedical applications of circular RNAs.","authors":"Zheyu Zhang, Zefeng Wang","doi":"10.3724/abbs.2024241","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have emerged as a large class of stable and conserved RNAs that are derived primarily from back-splicing of pre-mRNAs and expressed in a cell- and tissue-specific fashion. Recent studies have indicated that a subset of circRNAs may undergo translation through cap-independent pathways mediated by internal ribosome entry sites (IRESs), m6A modifications, or IRES-like short elements. Considering the stability and low immunogenicity of circRNAs, <i>in vitro</i> transcribed circRNAs hold great promise in biomedical applications. In this review, we briefly discuss the noncoding and coding functions of circRNAs in cells, as well as the methods for the <i>in vitro</i> synthesis of circRNAs and current advances in the applications of circRNAs in biomedicine.</p>","PeriodicalId":6978,"journal":{"name":"Acta biochimica et biophysica Sinica","volume":" ","pages":"157-168"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Acta biochimica et biophysica Sinica","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3724/abbs.2024241","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have emerged as a large class of stable and conserved RNAs that are derived primarily from back-splicing of pre-mRNAs and expressed in a cell- and tissue-specific fashion. Recent studies have indicated that a subset of circRNAs may undergo translation through cap-independent pathways mediated by internal ribosome entry sites (IRESs), m6A modifications, or IRES-like short elements. Considering the stability and low immunogenicity of circRNAs, in vitro transcribed circRNAs hold great promise in biomedical applications. In this review, we briefly discuss the noncoding and coding functions of circRNAs in cells, as well as the methods for the in vitro synthesis of circRNAs and current advances in the applications of circRNAs in biomedicine.
期刊介绍:
Acta Biochimica et Biophysica Sinica (ABBS) is an internationally peer-reviewed journal sponsored by the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (CAS). ABBS aims to publish original research articles and review articles in diverse fields of biochemical research including Protein Science, Nucleic Acids, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Biophysics, Immunology, and Signal Transduction, etc.