Going circular: history, present, and future of circRNAs in cancer

To date, thousands of highly abundant and conserved single-stranded RNA molecules shaped into ring structures (circRNAs) have been identified. CircRNAs are multifunctional molecules that have been shown to regulate gene expression transcriptionally and post-transcriptionally and exhibit distinct tissue- and development-specific expression patterns associated with a variety of normal and disease conditions, including cancer pathogenesis. Over the past years, due to their intrinsic stability and resistance to ribonucleases, particular attention has been drawn to their use as reliable diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. However, there are some critical caveats to…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Defense

  Awards: W81XWH, W81XWH-21-1-0715, W81XWH-21-1-0030
• CG
  CLL Global Research Foundation
• NC
  National Cancer Institute

  Awards: 2P50CA127001, 1R01GM122775-01, 1R01CA222007, 1R01CA222007-01A1, 1R01 CA182905-01
• NI
  National Institute of General Medical Sciences

  Award: 1R01GM122775-01
• MR
  Moonshot Research and Development Program