1. Role of circular RNAs in brain development and CNS diseases.
- Author
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Mehta SL, Dempsey RJ, and Vemuganti R
- Subjects
- Animals, Humans, RNA, Circular metabolism, Brain growth & development, Brain metabolism, Central Nervous System Diseases metabolism, MicroRNAs metabolism, RNA, Circular physiology
- Abstract
In mammals, many classes of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) are expressed at a much higher level in the brain than in other organs. Recent studies have identified a new class of ncRNAs called circular RNAs (circRNAs), which are produced by back-splicing and fusion of either exons, introns, or both exon-intron into covalently closed loops. The circRNAs are also highly enriched in the brain and increase continuously from the embryonic to the adult stage. Although the functional significance and mechanism of action of circRNAs are still being actively explored, they are thought to regulate the transcription of their host genes and sequestration of miRNAs and RNA binding proteins. Some circRNAs are also shown to have translation potential to form peptides. The expression and abundance of circRNAs seem to be spatiotemporally maintained in a normal brain. Altered expression of circRNAs is also thought to mediate several disorders, including brain-tumor growth, and acute and chronic neurodegenerative disorders by affecting mechanisms such as angiogenesis, neuronal plasticity, autophagy, apoptosis, and inflammation. This review discusses the involvement of various circRNAs in brain development and CNS diseases. A better understanding of the circRNA function will help to develop novel therapeutic strategies to treat CNS complications., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest Authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2020
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