Circular RNAs in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Emerging Functions to Clinical Significances

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary cancer of the liver and carries high morbidity and mortality. Diagnosing HCC at an early stage is challenging. Therefore, finding new, highly sensitive and specific diagnostic biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of HCC patients is extr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inFrontiers in oncology Vol. 11; p. 667428
Main Authors Zhang, Yucheng, Wang, Yali
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Frontiers Media S.A 14.05.2021
Subjects
biomarker
circular RNA
diagnosis
hepatocellular carcinoma
Oncology
prognosis
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Summary:Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary cancer of the liver and carries high morbidity and mortality. Diagnosing HCC at an early stage is challenging. Therefore, finding new, highly sensitive and specific diagnostic biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of HCC patients is extremely important. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs with covalently closed loop structures. They are characterized by remarkable stability, long half-life, abundance and evolutionary conservation. Recent studies have shown that many circRNAs are expressed aberrantly in HCC tissues and have important regulatory roles during the development and progression of HCC. Hence, circRNAs are promising biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of HCC. This review: (i) summarizes the biogenesis, categories, and functions of circRNAs; (ii) focuses on current progress of dysregulated expression of circRNAs in HCC with regard to regulation of the tumor hallmarks, “stemness” of cancer cells, and immunotherapy; (iii) highlights circRNAs as potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets for HCC; and (iv) discusses some of the challenges, questions and future perspectives of circRNAs research in HCC.
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Reviewed by: Zhou Jiang, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States; Yi Liu, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States
This article was submitted to Gastrointestinal Cancers, a section of the journal Frontiers in Oncology
Edited by: Xing-Xing He, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
ISSN:2234-943X
2234-943X
DOI:10.3389/fonc.2021.667428