Department of Laboratory Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu 226001, P.R. China.
Out‑Patient Department, Dongtai Municipal People's Hospital, Yancheng, Jiangsu 224200, P.R. China.
Oncol Rep. 2023 Aug;50(2). doi: 10.3892/or.2023.8597. Epub 2023 Jul 14.
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a special class of non‑coding RNAs that are widely expressed in tissues and cells. Owing to their lack of a 5'‑cap and 3'‑polyadenylated [poly(A)] tail, they are more structurally stable and difficult to degrade compared with linear RNA. Numerous studies published recently have suggested that circRNAs can encode peptides or proteins through cap‑independent translation mechanisms and participate in the occurrence and development of cancer. In the present review, the translation mechanism underlying the encoding of proteins by circRNAs, the biological information tools that are available for predicting translation, and the identification and verification of their translational abilities are summarized and analyzed. Finally, the mechanisms associated with circRNA‑encoded proteins or polypeptides in various types of cancer are summarized. In this review and its discussion on circRNAs and their coding function, we hope to provide novel perspectives and possibilities for the treatment of cancer as knowledge in this area is added to and developed in the future.
环状 RNA（circRNAs）是一类广泛表达于组织和细胞中的特殊非编码 RNA。由于缺乏 5′-帽和 3′-多聚腺苷酸化 [poly(A)] 尾，与线性 RNA 相比，circRNAs 结构更稳定，更不易降解。最近发表的大量研究表明，circRNAs 可通过无帽依赖的翻译机制编码肽或蛋白质，并参与癌症的发生和发展。在本综述中，总结和分析了 circRNAs 编码蛋白质的翻译机制、现有的用于预测翻译的生物信息学工具，以及对其翻译能力的鉴定和验证。最后，总结了各种类型癌症中与 circRNA 编码蛋白或多肽相关的机制。在本综述及其对 circRNAs 及其编码功能的讨论中，我们希望为癌症的治疗提供新的视角和可能性，随着该领域知识的不断增加和发展。
