Chen Bei Jun, Byrne Frances L, Takenaka Konii, Modesitt Susan C, Olzomer Ellen M, Mills James D, Farrell Rhonda, Hoehn Kyle L, Janitz Michael
School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
Oncotarget. 2017 Dec 20;9(5):5786-5796. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.23534. eCollection 2018 Jan 19.
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a naturally occurring family of non-coding RNA that may regulate gene expression in mammals. circRNAs are more stable than messenger RNAs due to their resistance to RNA exonuclease. A growing body of evidence has shown that the expression of circRNAs is regulated during development in a tissue-specific manner. CircRNAs have been implicated in a number of cancers; however, their role in endometrial cancer (EC) is completely unknown. Here, we report the circular transcriptome specific for EC as determined by RNA sequencing. We found that the overall abundance of circRNAs is lower in EC than in normal endometrium. Further, there are numerous 'hotspot' genes from which circRNAs are transcribed that may account for alterations in circRNA expression between the normal and malignant endometrium. Most importantly, we have also identified circRNAs that are differentially expressed between malignant and normal endometrial tissue. The functional significance of these circRNAs in cancer remains to be determined, but they may serve as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of EC or monitoring of EC progression.
环状RNA（circRNAs）是一类天然存在的非编码RNA，可能在哺乳动物中调节基因表达。由于环状RNA对RNA外切核酸酶具有抗性，因此它们比信使RNA更稳定。越来越多的证据表明，环状RNA的表达在发育过程中以组织特异性方式受到调控。环状RNA与多种癌症有关；然而，它们在子宫内膜癌（EC）中的作用尚完全未知。在此，我们报告了通过RNA测序确定的子宫内膜癌特异性环状转录组。我们发现，子宫内膜癌中环状RNA的总体丰度低于正常子宫内膜。此外，有许多环状RNA转录自的“热点”基因，这可能解释了正常子宫内膜与恶性子宫内膜之间环状RNA表达的差异。最重要的是，我们还鉴定出了在恶性和正常子宫内膜组织之间差异表达的环状RNA。这些环状RNA在癌症中的功能意义尚待确定，但它们可能作为诊断子宫内膜癌或监测子宫内膜癌进展的潜在生物标志物。
