Abstract
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a myeloid malignancy characterized by the proliferation of abnormal and immature myeloid blasts in the bone marrow. Circular RNA (circRNA) is a novel class of long non-coding RNA with a stable circular conformation that regulates various biological processes. The aberrant expression of circRNA and its impact on AML progression has been reported by a number of studies. Despite recent advances in circRNA research, our understanding of the leukemogenic mechanism of circRNA remains very limited, and translating the current circRNA-related research into clinical practice is challenging. This review provides an update on the functional roles of and research progress on circRNAs in AML with an emphasis on mechanistic insights. The challenges and opportunities associated with circRNA-based diagonostic and therapeutic development in AML are also outlined.
Highlights
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common leukemia in adults, presenting great biological and clinical heterogeneity [1]
Increasing the expression of miR-15a/16-1 by inhibiting BASP facilitates apoptosis and leukemic cell cycle arrest [39]. These findings suggest that circDLEU2 is crucial for in vitro proliferation and tumor formation in AML and, the DLEU2 gene is identified as a tumorsuppressor gene, it can be implicated in leukemogenesis
Numerous Micro RNA (miRNA) with oncogenic potential have been reported in hematopoietic malignancies, e.g., miR22 causes the repression of the TET2 gene, causing defective differentiation of leukemic cells [65]
Summary
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common leukemia in adults, presenting great biological and clinical heterogeneity [1]. The silencing of this circRNA inhibited the proliferation of AML cells and initiated apoptosis, highlighting the diagnostic and therapeutic potential of circ_009910-miR-20a-5p AML [18]. Functional analysis via the KEGG and GO databases predicted that the target genes of these miRNAs are associated with various cellular processes and signaling pathways involved in cancer [24,25,26,27].
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