Circular RNAs and their role in renal cell carcinoma: a current perspective

Zhongyuan Liu,Ming Li

doi:10.1186/s12935-021-02181-7

Abstract

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a new class of long non-coding RNAs, that results from a special type of alternative splicing referred to as back-splicing. They are widely distributed in eukaryotic cells and demonstrate tissue-specific expression patterns in humans. CircRNAs actively participate in various important biological activities like gene transcription, pre-mRNA splicing, translation, sponging miRNA and proteins, etc. With such diverse biological functions, circRNAs not only play a crucial role in normal human physiology, as well as in multiple diseases, including cancer. In this review, we summarized our current understanding of circRNAs and their role in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the most common cancer of kidneys. Studies have shown that the expression level of several circRNAs are considerably varied in RCC samples and RCC cell lines suggesting the potential role of these circRNAs in RCC progression. Several circRNAs promote RCC development and progression mostly via the miRNA/target gene axis making them ideal candidates for novel anti-cancer therapy. Apart from these, there are a few circRNAs that are significantly downregulated in RCC and overexpression of these circRNAs leads to suppression of RCC growth. Differential expression patterns and novel functions of circRNAs in RCC suggest that circRNAs can be utilized as potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets for RCC therapy. However, our current understanding of the role of circRNA in RCC is still in its infancy and much comprehensive research is needed to achieve clinical translation of circRNAs as biomarkers and therapeutic targets in developing effective treatment options for RCC.

Highlights

Further experimental analysis showed that circPCNXL2 functions as a micro RNA (miRNA) sponge for miR-153, resulting in increased expression of ZEB2 protein, which is associated with aggressive renal cell carcinoma (RCC) phenotype and poor prognosis in RCC patients [73, 74]
Conclusion and future perspective Circular RNAs are a group of biologically active long non-coding RNAs that are associated with various biological functions in eukaryotic cells
We further gave an overall idea of how several Circular RNAs (circRNA) influence RCC growth and progression

Summary

Introduction

With trillions of cells multiplying in the body, any alterations in the process that lead to uncontrolled growth of cells will result in cancer. Many studies have demonstrated that the expression of various circRNAs is dysregulated in various cancers including RCC [14–16]. Circ-ITCH is shown to sponge miR-7 and miR214 resulting in inhibition of lung cancer via increased expression of the ITCH gene [49].

Results

Conclusion