The First Clinical School of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, People's Republic of China.
Department of General Surgery, Jiangsu Province Hospital, 300 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing City, 210029, Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China.
Clin Transl Oncol. 2018 Sep;20(9):1109-1116. doi: 10.1007/s12094-018-1839-y. Epub 2018 Mar 13.
Circular RNAs (CircRNAs) are a type of non-coding RNAs (NcRNAs) with a closed annular structure. Until next-generation sequencing (NGS) is developed, the misunderstanding of circRNAs 'splicing error' has changed, and the mysterious veil of circRNAs has been revealed. NGS provides an approach to investigate circRNAs. Many scholars point out that circRNAs may play an important role in many diseases, especially cancer. At the same time, exosomes, as a kind of extracellular vesicles loaded with many contents, are a hotspot in recent years. They can act as 'messengers' between cells, especially in cancer. Lately, it is interesting circRNAs are enriched and stable in exosomes, also called exo-circRNAs, and there have been several articles on circRNAs associated with exosomes. In this review, we summarize the characteristics of circRNAs, especially its main functions. Then, we briefly introduce exosomes and their function in cancer. Finally, the known relation between circRNAs and exosomes is discussed. With further researches, exo-circRNAs may be a novel pathway for cancer diagnosis and targeted therapy.
环状 RNA（circRNAs）是一种具有闭合环形结构的非编码 RNA（NcRNAs）。直到下一代测序（NGS）技术发展之前，circRNAs“剪接错误”的误解发生了改变，circRNAs 的神秘面纱被揭开。NGS 为研究 circRNAs 提供了一种方法。许多学者指出，circRNAs 可能在许多疾病中发挥重要作用，尤其是癌症。同时，外泌体作为一种装载有许多内容物的细胞外囊泡，是近年来的一个热点。它们可以作为细胞之间的“信使”，尤其是在癌症中。最近，有趣的是，circRNAs 在富含 exo-circRNAs 的外泌体中丰富且稳定，并且已经有几篇关于与外泌体相关的 circRNAs 的文章。在这篇综述中，我们总结了 circRNAs 的特征，特别是其主要功能。然后，我们简要介绍了外泌体及其在癌症中的作用。最后，讨论了已知的 circRNAs 与外泌体之间的关系。随着进一步的研究，exo-circRNAs 可能成为癌症诊断和靶向治疗的新途径。
