Discovery of dysregulated circular RNAs in whole blood transcriptomes from cystic fibrosis patients - implication of a role for cellular senescence in cystic fibrosis.

Background: A largely unexplored area of research is the identification and characterization of circular RNA (circRNA) in cystic fibrosis (CF). This study is the first to identify and characterize alterations in circRNA expression in cells lacking CFTR function. The circRNA expression profiles in whole blood transcriptomes from CF patients homozygous for the pathogenetic variant F508delCFTR are compared to healthy controls.