Emerging role of circular RNA in intervertebral disc degeneration: Knowns and unknowns (Review)

Abstract

lower back pain (lBP) is one of the predominant factors contributing to dyskinesia and remains a serious social and economic burden worldwide. intervertebral disc degeneration (idd) is the leading cause of lBP; the existing idd treatments cannot completely prevent idd. circular rnas (circrnas) are non-coding rnas resulting from back-splicing with unique structural characteristics and functions. accumulating evidence suggests that circrnas are involved in the pathological process of idd and modulate a range of idd-related genes or proteins. However, the underlying circrna-mediated regulatory mechanisms remain poorly understood. The aim of the present review is to describe the current understanding of circRNA characteristics, classification, biogenesis and function in relation to its specific roles in idd. additionally, the limitations on the current knowledge in the field and the future direction of IDD-related research are also discussed. Contents 1. introduction 2. characteristics 3. Classifications 4. Biogenesis and functions 5. Specific roles of circRNA in IDD 6. current limitations and future directions 7. conclusions

Construction of a Potentially Functional circRNA-miRNA-mRNA Network in Intervertebral Disc Degeneration by Bioinformatics Analysis

“…circRNAs, a novel class of ceRNA, without a 5′ cap or 3′ tail, have been proven to play an important regulatory role in IDD. Additionally, numerous studies have illustrated that circRNAs serve as miRNA sponges to modulate the pathogenesis of IDD [ 35 , 36 ]. In the ceRNA theory, mRNA and circRNA regulate each other's expression by targeting their common miRNAs, which are important for understanding the progression of the disease.…”

Roles of circular RNAs in the pathogenesis of intervertebral disc degeneration (Review)

“…Gain-of-function, loss-of-function and rescue experiments were generally performed to investigate the biological functions and regulatory pathways of circRNAs. Luciferase reporter, pulldown and immunoprecipitation assays were performed to confirm the direct interactions among the molecules of signaling pathways of circRNAs ( 18 , 19 ).…”

Identification of Differentially Expressed circRNAs, miRNAs, and Genes in Patients Associated with Cartilaginous Endplate Degeneration

“…In recent years, noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) have drawn growing attention because of the role which they play in a spectrum of chronic degenerative diseases of the spine and joints, encompassing IDD [12][13][14][15][16], ankylosing spondylitis [17], osteoarthritis [18,19], and rheumatoid arthritis [20]. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and long ncRNAs are the members of the family of ncRNAs.…”

“…Circular RNAs (circRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and long ncRNAs are the members of the family of ncRNAs. MiRNAs bind to their target mRNAs to initiate degradation or repress their translation [21].CircRNAs have been determined to be involved in multiple biological processes to mediate IDD progression, such as cell death and growth, as well as inflammatory response and ECM metabolism [12][13][14][15][16]. Furthermore, circRNAs have also been demonstrated to have the therapeutic effect on IDD model rats [14][15][16].…”

“…Furthermore, circRNAs have also been demonstrated to have the therapeutic effect on IDD model rats [14][15][16]. Mechanistically, circRNAs acts as a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to sponge miRNAs, thereby positively regulating target mRNAs expression [12]. However, the potential biofunctions of circRNAs in CEPD of cervical vertebra is still a blank.…”