Circular RNAs in vascular diseases

Abstract

Vascular diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide and are urgently in need of diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic strategies. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) represent a unique class of RNAs characterized by a circular loop configuration and have recently been identified to possess a wide variety of biological functions. CircRNAs exhibit exceptional stability, tissue specificity, and are detectable in body fluids, thus holding promise as potential biomarkers. Their encoding function and stable gene expression also position circRNAs as an excellent alternative to gene therapy. Here, we briefly review the biogenesis, degradation, and functions of circRNAs. We summarize circRNAs discovered in major vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis and aneurysms, with a particular focus on molecular mechanisms of circRNAs identified in vascular endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells, in the hope to reveal new directions for mechanism, prognosis and therapeutic targets of vascular diseases.

Editorial: Emerging roles of circular RNAs in the tumor: functions and potential applications–volume II

“…Circular RNA (circRNA), a class of non-coding RNAs without the 3′cap and 5′poly(A) and linked by covalent bonds, has attracted substantial attention in the field of biological research. The surge in interest has led to a collective understanding of circRNA’s pivotal roles in physiological development and various diseases ( Kristensen et al, 2018 ; Chen and Lu, 2021 ; Gu et al, 2023 ; Liu et al, 2023 ; Pisignano et al, 2023 ). Recent use of RNA sequencing and bioinformatics methods has discovered a huge number of circRNAs in diverse cell lines and species.…”