The research progress of circular RNAs in hematological malignancies

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Circular RNA (circRNA), a covalently closed loop structure lacking poly-adenylated tails, has attracted attention with the rapid development of its detection techniques such as bioinformatics and RNA sequencing. CircRNA plays important roles in several cell signaling pathways that are associated with cancer biogenesis, including acting as miRNA sponges, transcriptional regulators, protein adaptors and protein translators. The role of circRNA in hematological malignancy has been revealed recently. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of circRNA in hematological malignancy.

Methods: A comprehensive literature review was conducted through Pubmed to summarize the published evidence on the circRNAs in hematological malignancies. English literature sources since 1976 were searched, using the terms circRNA, hematological malignancy.

Results: CircRNAs can regulate the gene expression of hematological malignancies mainly through adsorbing several miRNAs. Some circRNAs are potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets in hematological malignancies, such as acute myloid leukemia (AML), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Conclusion: CircRNAs play an important biological function and have great diagnostic and prognostic value in hematological malignancies.

KEYWORDS:

• Circular RNA
• hematological malignancy
• AML
• CML
• CLL
• function
• biomarker
• therapeutic target

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Tingting Ji http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6674-3072

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Jiangsu Province health committee (grant number H2018085), Science and Technology Foundation of Huai’an City (grant number HAB201810), ‘333 Projects' Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant number BRA2017243), ‘533 Projects' Foundation of Huai’an City (grant number HAA201739), Science and Technology Development Fund of Huai’an City (grant number HAS201608), Innovation Team Foundation of The Affiliated Huaian No.1 People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Translational Medicine Foundation of The Affiliated Huaian No.1 People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University.