Reduced expression of circRNA hsa_circ_001888 in gastric cancer and its clinical significance.

Background: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a novel family of endogenous RNAs. Recent studies have demonstrated that circRNAs are potential novel biomarkers for diagnosing cancers. However, little is known about the role of circRNAs in gastric cancer (GC).

Circular RNAs: an emerging landscape in tumor metastasis.

Circular RNAs (CircRNAs), the endogenous long noncoding RNAs, unlike linear RNAs, are structurally continuous, covalently closed loops without 5' cap or 3' polyadenylated tail. High-throughput RNA sequencing has enabled the discovery of several endogenous circRNAs in different species and tissues. The circRNAs mainly act as sponges to cytoplasmic microRNA, aid in protein translation, or interact with RNA-binding proteins to generate RNA-protein complexes which control transcription.

The emerging role of circular RNAs in gastric cancer.

Gastric cancer (GC) ranks as the fourth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a new class of long noncoding RNAs characterized by a single-stranded covalently closed loop structure. Emerging evidence reveals the essential function of circRNAs in the occurrence and development of human diseases.