The role of circular RNAs in autoimmune diseases: Potential diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

With the emergence of high-quality sequencing technologies, further research on transcriptomes has become possible. Circular RNA (circRNA), a novel type of endogenous RNA molecule with a covalently closed circular structure through "back-splicing," is reported to be widely present in eukaryotic cells and participates mainly in regulating gene and protein expression in various ways. It is becoming a research hotspot in the non-coding RNA field.

The clinical perspective of circular RNAs in neurodegenerative diseases: potential diagnostic tools and therapeutic targets.

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) mostly occur in older demographics. With the average lifespan increasing over time, NDDs are becoming one of the major adverse factors affecting human health and the quality of life. Currently, there are no specific diagnostic methods for NDDs and they are usually diagnosed based on nonspecific clinical symptoms and occasionally by biomarkers, such as -amyloid (Aβ) for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and a-synuclein (-syn) for Parkinson's disease, etc.