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. 2018 Dec 18;9:2977. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.02977

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Copyright © 2018 Yang, Fu and Zhou.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Formation and classification of circRNAs and models of circRNA function. circRNAs are formed by back-splicing. There are three major types of circRNA: ecircRNA, ciRNA, and EIciRNA. EcircRNAs function mainly in the cytoplasm through the “microRNA sponge” mechanism, whereas EIciRNA and ciRNA accumulate in the nucleus and facilitate transcription of their parent genes via cis-regulatory effects. In addition, some circRNAs have been reported to act by interacting with or encoding proteins.