Abstract
Circular ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules (circRNAs) are covalently closed loop RNA molecules with no 5′ end caps or 3′ poly (A) tails, which are generated by back-splicing. Originally, circRNAs were considered to be byproducts of aberrant splicing. However, in recent years, development of high-throughput sequencing has led to gradual recognition of functional circRNAs, and increasing numbers of studies have elucidated their roles in cancer, neurologic diseases, and cardiovascular disorders. Nevertheless, studies of the functions of circRNAs in the immune system are relatively scarce. In this review, we detail relevant research on the biogenesis and classification of circRNAs, describe their functional mechanisms and approaches to their investigation, and summarize recent studies of circRNA function in the immune system.
Highlights
Circular ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a covalently closed loop molecular form of RNA, and was discovered more than two decades ago [1, 2]
CircRNAs in Immune Regulation will be produced [7], along with a linear transcript excluding the skipped exon(s). This mechanism was an early understanding of how circRNAs are formed because the linear transcripts that are produced alongside circRNAs were described some years ago [17, 18]
Jeck et al determined that, unlike sequence regions involved in generation of noncircular transcripts, the 200 bp upstream or downstream of a back-splice site contain canonical complementary ALU repeats, suggesting that intronic pairing may drive the circularization of exonic circRNAs
Summary
Circular ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules (circRNAs) are covalently closed loop RNA molecules with no 5′ end caps or 3′ poly (A) tails, which are generated by back-splicing. CircRNAs were considered to be byproducts of aberrant splicing. In recent years, development of high-throughput sequencing has led to gradual recognition of functional circRNAs, and increasing numbers of studies have elucidated their roles in cancer, neurologic diseases, and cardiovascular disorders. Studies of the functions of circRNAs in the immune system are relatively scarce. We detail relevant research on the biogenesis and classification of circRNAs, describe their functional mechanisms and approaches to their investigation, and summarize recent studies of circRNA function in the immune system. Reviewed by: Grace Chen, Yale University, United States Yi Zhao, Sichuan University, China. Specialty section: This article was submitted to Molecular Innate Immunity, a section of the journal
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