🔷In the past few decades, the biological role of RNA has undergone profound changes. Initially, RNA was considered to be just an intermediate information carrier between DNA and protein, but modern research has revealed that the function of RNA goes far beyond simple genetic information transmission. In particular, the discovery of circular RNA (circRNA) has greatly expanded our understanding of RNA biology. These RNA molecules form closed ring structures through a unique splicing mechanism, similar to molecular origami, which distinguishes them from traditional linear RNA in biological function.
🔷Circular RNA was initially regarded as a product of abnormal splicing, but with the deepening of research, they have been confirmed to be widely present in various organisms and play an important role in various pathological processes such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, the stability and regulatory ability of circular RNA also make it have the application prospect of becoming a potential therapeutic agent and biomarker.
🔷The formation of circular RNA originates from a unique reverse splicing mechanism, which is completely different from the traditional pre-mRNA splicing, which is a linear mRNA formed by intron splicing and exon splicing. Back splicing causes the 3′ end of the exon to be reversely connected to the 5′ end of the upstream exon, thus forming a circular structure.
🔷This unique structure not only gives circular RNA nonlinear characteristics, but also gives them multiple functions. Circular RNA has been found to not only act as a regulatory factor in cells, but also play an important role in gene expression regulation, cell differentiation, and disease occurrence by interacting with a variety of RNA binding proteins (RBPs) and other RNA molecules.
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