Open AccessRole of Circular RNAs in Cardiovascular Disease
Author(s) -
Raj Kishore,
Venkata Naga Srikanth Garikipati,
Carolina González
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of cardiovascular pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1533-4023
pISSN - 0160-2446
DOI - 10.1097/fjc.0000000000000841
Subject(s) - circular rna , rna splicing , mechanism (biology) , computational biology , alternative splicing , biology , disease , splice , upstream (networking) , gene , rna , bioinformatics , messenger rna , medicine , genetics , computer science , pathology , philosophy , computer network , epistemology
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have recently been identified as a new class of long noncoding RNAs with gene regulatory roles. These covalently closed transcripts are generated when the pre-mRNA splicing machinery back splices to join a downstream 5' splice site to an upstream 3' splice site. CircRNAs are naturally resistant to degradation by exonucleases and have long half-lives compared with their linear counterpart that potentially could serve as biomarkers for disease. Recent evidence highlights that circRNAs may play an essential role in cardiovascular injury and repair. However, our knowledge of circRNA is still in its infancy with limited direct evidence to suggest that circRNA may play critical roles in the mechanism and treatment of cardiac dysfunction. In this review, we focus on our current understanding of circRNA in the cardiovascular system.