Recent Advances in the Potential Use of Circular RNA for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer

• Main Authors: Sun X, Liu D, Ge N, Guo J, Wang S, Liu X, Wang G, Sun S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dove Medical Press 2021-05-01
• Series: Cancer Management and Research
• Subjects: circular rna; pancreatic cancer; biological function; biomarker; targeted therapy
• Online Access: https://www.dovepress.com/recent-advances-in-the-potential-use-of-circular-rna-for-the-diagnosis-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-CMAR

Xinzhu Sun,1 Dongyan Liu,2 Nan Ge,1 Jintao Guo,1 Sheng Wang,1 Xiang Liu,1 Guoxin Wang,1 Siyu Sun1 1Department of Gastroenterology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Gastroenterology and Medical Research Center, Liaoning Key Laboratory of Research and Application of Animal Models for Environmental and Metabolic Diseases, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Siyu SunDepartment of Gastroenterology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, 36 Sanhao Street, Shenyang, 110004, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail [e-mail]: There are few biomarkers available for the early diagnosis and prognostic evaluation of pancreatic cancer. In addition, the development of targeted therapy for pancreatic cancer is an unmet need due to the lack of molecular targets. With the continuous progress in circular RNA (circRNA)-related research, its role in the occurrence and development of pancreatic cancer has been discovered and gradually recognized. Therefore, circRNA may represent a novel marker for early diagnosis of this disease and a focus of targeted clinical therapy. CircRNA is a type of non-coding RNA with a closed circular structure formed by covalent bonds. Some circRNAs can act as “sponges” to adsorb microRNAs (miRNAs) and play the role of competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to remove their inhibitory effects on the target genes of miRNA. Thus, they can indirectly restore the expression of target genes. The circRNA–miRNA–mRNA network plays a regulatory role in the proliferation, invasion, metastasis, and other biological behaviors of pancreatic cancer. Given the recent advances in circRNA, this review seeks to provide an overview of the biological function of circRNA and highlights the recent research progress regarding the molecular mechanism of circRNA for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer.Keywords: circular RNA, pancreatic cancer, biological function, biomarker, targeted therapy