Circular RNAs in breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and prognosis

Abstract

Breast cancer has surpassed lung cancer to become the most common malignancy worldwide. The incidence rate and mortality rate of breast cancer continue to rise, which leads to a great burden on public health. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a new class of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), have been recognized as important oncogenes or suppressors in regulating cancer initiation and progression. In breast cancer, circRNAs have significant roles in tumorigenesis, recurrence and multidrug resistance that are mediated by various mechanisms. Therefore, circRNAs may serve as promising targets of therapeutic strategies for breast cancer management. This study reviews the most recent studies about the biosynthesis and characteristics of circRNAs in diagnosis, treatment and prognosis evaluation, as well as the value of circRNAs in clinical applications as biomarkers or therapeutic targets in breast cancer. Understanding the mechanisms by which circRNAs function could help transform basic research into clinical applications and facilitate the development of novel circRNA-based therapeutic strategies for breast cancer treatment.

CircTRIM1 encodes TRIM1-269aa to promote chemoresistance and metastasis of TNBC via enhancing CaM-dependent MARCKS translocation and PI3K/AKT/mTOR activation

“…Over the past few decades, circRNAs have gradually become the focus of research on various diseases due to their unique properties. Advancements in high-throughput RNA sequencing and circRNA-specific molecular tools have revealed that numerous circRNAs are abnormally expressed in a wide spectrum of cancer types, suggesting potential functional roles of these circRNAs in cancers [ 42 ]. The noncoding functions of circRNAs, including their functions as miRNA-binding sponges and interactions with RBPs, have been the most extensively studied in the field of circRNA investigation [ 43 ].…”

CircST6GAL1 knockdown alleviates pulmonary arterial hypertension by regulating miR‐509‐5p/multiple C2 and transmembrane domain containing 2 axis

“…At present, circRNAs have been identified that may serve as promising targets of therapeutic strategies for diseases due to their high stability and the characteristic of tissue‐ or cell type‐specific expression. 24 , 25 Moreover, circRNA‐based vaccines, such as CircRNA RBD , VFLIP‐X, cytokine‐encoding circular mRNA for cancer therapy, and CircRNA OVA‐luc ‐LNP vaccine, have been proposed and confirmed in animal models. 26 Therefore, targeting circST6GAL1 may be a promising strategy for preventing PAH.…”

CircMYBL2 facilitates hepatocellular carcinoma progression by regulating E2F1 expression

“…In the early stage of tumors, E2F1 promotes both cell proliferation and apoptosis and has been shown to delay tumor progression. In more advanced stages, the proapoptotic function is gradually lost, and thus the proliferative effect of E2F1 becomes dominant [ 52 , 53 ]. Consistent with previous studies, the bioinformatic analyses in our study revealed that both the 3′-UTR of E2F1 and circMYBL2 contain miR-1205 binding sites, and western blotting further indicated that circMYBL2 regulates E2F1 expression by sponging miR-1205.…”