Abstract
Bladder cancer (BCa) is the most prevalent malignancy of the urinary system. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a novel subtype of non-coding RNAs, play a crucial role in physiological and developmental processes. CircRNAs mainly function as regulators of splicing process and transcription, microRNA sponges, and protein brackets. Recent advances in understanding the pathogenesis of BCa have led to the identification of an abundance of dysregulated circRNAs associated with BCa. These aberrantly expressed circRNAs eventually lead to abnormalities in biological, genetic, and epigenetic information. In this review, we introduce the potential of circRNAs as biomarkers for BCa diagnosis and prognosis. Notably, diverse mechanisms have been proposed for circRNAs driving carcinogenesis, including increasing cell proliferation, promoting invasive and migratory capacity, enhancing endothelial–mesenchymal transition, sustaining stemness, and enabling resistance to chemotherapy. Importantly, a full understanding of circRNA mechanisms is needed to mine promising therapeutic approaches for targeting BCa. In this paper, we present the latest advances in circRNAs and systemically summarize the characteristics and mechanisms of circRNAs in BCa, providing potential perspectives for BCa treatment.
Highlights
Bladder cancer (BCa) is the most prevalent malignancy of the urinary system
A large amount of research has shown that circRNAs are differentially expressed between BCa tissues and adjacent normal tissues
CircRNAs in body fluids may function as non-invasive biomarkers for BCa, such as circCEP128, circPRMT5, and hsa_circ _0137439
Summary
Bladder cancer (BCa) is the most prevalent malignancy of the urinary system. Each year, BCa accounts for an estimated 500,000 new cases and 200,000 deaths worldwide, making it the fourth most frequent cancer in males and the 11th most frequent cancer in females (Richters et al, 2020; Siegel et al, 2020). Increasing evidence has demonstrated the significance of circRNAs in tumorigenesis, proliferation, progression, and treatment resistance (Xiao et al, 2019, 1; Chen L. et al, 2020; Ye et al, 2020) Owing to their high stability, tissue specificity, and existence in exosomes and body fluids, circRNAs may be promising biomarkers or therapeutic targets for malignancies (Bahn et al, 2015; Rybak-Wolf et al, 2015; Li and Han, 2019). Accumulating evidence has proven that circRNAs are aberrantly expressed in many malignancies, including BCa. Advances in the elucidation of the pathogenesis of BCa have identified an abundance of dysregulated circRNAs in BCa cells and tissues.
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