环状RNA(circRNA)广泛存在于各种生物细胞中,具有结构稳定、丰度高和组织特异性表达等特征。新近研究显示,circRNA是竞争性内源RNA(ceRNA)的重要成员,通过与靶微小RNA(miRNA)结合,调控相关RNA的表达,在基因调节和表达等方面发挥着重要功能。circRNA不仅丰富了人们对真核生物和ceRNA调控作用网络的认识,而且提示circRNA可作为疾病诊断的生物学新标志物,在药物开发和疾病诊治中具有良好的应用前景。然而目前对于circRNA的研究还十分有限,本文就circRNA的相关研究进行综述,以供进一步研究。
Circular RNA (circRNA) is widely found in various species' cells. They have several characteristics including structural stability, high expression and expression in a tissue-specific manner. Recent studies have demonstrated that circRNA is a member of competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA). CircRNA regulate the expression of related RNA molecules via binding with target microRNA (miRNA) and play an important role in gene expression and regulation. The finding of circRNAs not only expand our understanding about eucaryon and ceRNA regulation network, but also indicate that circRNA might be a new biological marker for diagnosis and has good application prospects in drug development research, and disease diagnosis and treatment. Because current research on circRNA is still very few, a brief summary about circRNA is presented in this paper for further research.