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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jun 15, 2019; 11(6): 459-469
Published online Jun 15, 2019. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v11.i6.459
Role of circular RNAs in gastric cancer: Recent advances and prospects
Ke-Wei Wang, Ming Dong
Ke-Wei Wang, Ming Dong, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: Wang KW searched the scientific literature for the recent advance in the field, and wrote the manuscript; Dong M designed the study, and edited and revised the manuscript. Final approval of the final version was obtained from each author.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ming Dong, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, 155 Nanjing North Street, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning Province, China. dongming@cmu.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-24-83282886 Fax: +86-24-83282886
Received: February 10, 2019
Peer-review started: February 12, 2019
First decision: March 15, 2019
Revised: April 6, 2019
Accepted: April 19, 2019
Article in press: April 20, 2019
Published online: June 15, 2019
Processing time: 124 Days and 3.3 Hours
Abstract

Circular RNA (circRNA) is a newly discovered non-coding RNA with special structure, which is widely expressed in eukaryotic organisms and mainly located in the cytoplasm. circRNAs participate in gene regulation by working as miRNA sponges that block the inhibitory effect of miRNA on its target genes. In addition, circRNAs can bind to RNA binding proteins to regulate gene expression. Based on characteristics of stability, expression specificity and participation in gene regulation, circRNAs are expected to be biomarkers for early diagnosis of cancer or potential targets for cancer therapy. With the help of bioinformatics analysis, circRNA microarray analysis and high-throughput sequencing technology, more circRNAs were discovered to participate in the progression of gastric cancer (GC) over the past three years. This article gives an overview of these recent research focusing on the roles of circRNAs in GC and highlights the advances.

Keywords: Circular RNA; Gastric cancer; Biomarker; Therapeutic target; Prognosis

Core tip: Gastric cancer (GC) is a common, worldwide malignant tumor with a poor prognosis. An increasing number of circRNAs was discovered to participate in the progression of GC. Therefore, exploring the function of circRNAs will help to achieve a better understanding of the pathogenesis of GC and identify new diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets. This article gives an overview of the recent research focusing on the roles of circRNAs in GC and highlights the advances that were made over the past three years.