Table 1.
Current Circular RNA in cancer therapy
| Tumour type | CircRNA | Function | Mechanism/Experiments | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Down‐regulation | ||||
| Hepatocellular carcinoma | circARSP91 | Interaction with protein | circARSP91/UL16 binding protein1. Overexpression of circARSP91 could enhance the cytotoxicity of natural killer cells against hepatocellular carcinoma | 74 |
| cSMARCA5 | MiRNA sponge | cSMARCA5/ miR‐17‐3p and miR‐181‐5p/ TIMP metallopeptidase inhibitor 3. Overexpression of cSMARCA5 suppresses the proliferation and migration of HCC cells | 33 | |
| hsa_circ_0079299 | Interaction with protein | Inhibiting cell proliferation through PI3K/AKT/mTOR signalling pathway. Over‐Overexpression of hsa_circ_0079299 suppressed tumour growth in vitro and in vivo, retarded cell cycle progression while had no effect on cell migration and apoptosis | 85 | |
| Bladder cancer | circ_ZKSCAN1 | MiRNA sponge | circ‐ZKSCAN1/miR‐1178‐3p/p21. Overexpressed circ‐ZKSCAN1 inhibited cell proliferation, migration, invasion and metastasis in vitro and in vivo | 86 |
| circHIPK3(BCRC‐2) | MiRNA sponge | circHIPK3/ miR‐558/heparinase. Overexpression of circHIPK3 effectively inhibited migration, invasion, and angiogenesis of bladder cancer cells in vitro and suppresses bladder cancer growth and metastasis in vivo. | 78 | |
| circ‐Foxo3 | MiRNA sponge | circ‐Foxo3/miR‐191‐5p. Overexpression of circ‐Foxo3 promoted bladder cancer cell apoptosis in BBN mice and in human bladder cancer cell lines | 68 | |
| Breast cancer | circ‐Foxo3 | Interaction with protein | the complex of circ‐Foxo3 and MDM2 induces the degradation of p53, modulating immune responses during tumorigenesis. Ectopic expression of circ‐Foxo3 triggered stress‐induced apoptosis and inhibited the growth of tumour xenograft. | 12 |
| Gastric cancer | circ_100269 | MiRNA sponge | CircRNA_100269/miR‐630/LPHN2. Overexpression suppresses tumour cell growth. | 87 |
| hsa_circ_0000096 | Interaction with protein | modulating cyclin D1, CDK6, matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP‐2), and MMP‐9. Knockdown of hsa_circ_0000096 significantly inhibited cell proliferation and migration in vitro and in vivo | 88 | |
| circFAT1(e2) | MiRNA sponge in cytoplasm and interaction with protein in nucleus | circFAT1(e2)/miR‐548g/RUNX1 in the cytoplasm and targeting YBX1 in the nucleus. Overexpression of circFAT1(e2) inhibiting proliferation, migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells | 31 | |
| circMRPS35 | Interaction with protein even directly mRNA regulator | circMRPS35/KAT7/FOXO1/3a. recruit KAT7 to and directly bind to FOXO1/3a promoter region. circMRPS35 overexpression suppressed the proliferation and invasion of gastric cancer cells in vitro and in vivo | 89 | |
| Kidney cancer cell | circC3P1 | MiRNA sponge | circC3P1/ miR‐21/PTEN and inactivating PI3K/AKT and NF‐κB signalling pathways. CircC3P1 overexpression declined cell viability, migration, and invasion and caused apoptosis | 90 |
| Lung cancer | circPTK2 | MiRNA sponge | circPTK2/miR‐429, miR‐200b‐3p/TIF1γ.CircPTK2 overexpression inhibited TGFβ‐induced EMT | 91 |
| circNOL10 | Interaction with protein | circNOL10 inhibits lung cancer development by promoting SCLM1‐mediated transcriptional regulation of the humanin polypeptide family in vitro and in vivo | 92 | |
| circRNA‐ITCH | MiRNA sponge | circRNA‐ITCH/ miR‐7, miR‐17 and miR‐214/ ITCH, and suppress the activation of Wnt/‐catenin signalling. Overexpressed circRNA‐ITCH suppress lung cancer cell proliferation | 28 | |
| Colorectal cancer | hsa_circ_0014717 | MiRNA sponge | hsa_circ_0014717/p16. Hsa_circ_0014717 overexpression could significantly suppress CRC cell proliferation and colony formation, as well as induce cell cycle G0/G1 phase arrest in vitro and inhibit xenograft tumour growth in vivo | 93 |
| Glioblastoma | circ‐FBXW7 | Translation | Translation template of FBXW7‐185aa. Up‐regulation of FBXW7‐185aa can help to inhibit proliferation and cell cycle acceleration | 16 |
| Prostate cancer | circAMOTL1L | MiRNA sponge | circAMOTL1L/miR‐193a‐5p/Pcdha.CircAMOTL1L overexpression inhibited progression and invasion of prostate cancer cells | 32 |
| Rectal cancer | circMTO1 | MiRNA sponge | circMTO1/miR‐19b‐3p/JAK1/STAT3 and AMPK signal pathways. CircMTO1 overexpression could suppress cell proliferation, migration, and incursion and induce apoptosis | 94 |
| CDR1as (or CiRS‐7) | MiRNA sponge | CDR1as/miR‐1270/SCAI signalling pathway. Overexpression of CDR1as sensitized ovarian cancer to cisplatin, inhibited cell proliferation and promoted the cisplatin‐induced cell apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells | 95 | |
| CDR1as (or CiRS‐7) | MiRNA sponge | CDR1as/miR‐135b‐5p/HIF1AN.CDR1as overexpression inhibited the proliferation, invasion and migration of ovarian cancer cells | 96 | |
| Up‐regulation | ||||
| Pancreatic cancer | hsa_circ_0020397 | MiRNA sponge | hsa_circ_0020397/miR138/TERT and PD‐L1, contributes to immunocytes exhaustion and tumour escape from immune responses, new insight for "checkpoint therapy" | 26 |
| Breast cancer | hsa_circRNA_002178 | MiRNA sponge | hsa_circRNA_002178/miR‐328‐3p/COL1A1.Hsa_circRNA_002178 silencing inhibited inflammation in vivo through reducing TNF‐α and IL‐6 levels and prevented tumour growth | 53 |
| circ‐AMOTL1 | Interaction with protein | Facilitate c‐myc nuclear translocation and regulate its gene transcription. Silencing circ‐Amotl1 decreased cancer cell proliferation but increased cell apoptosis | 70 | |
| Cervical cancer | circAMOTL1 | MiRNA sponge | circAMOTL1/miR‐485‐5p/AMOTL1. Gain‐ or loss‐of‐function assays and in vivo experiments demonstrated that AMOTL1 promoted cervical cancer cell growth both in vitro and in vivo | 97 |
| Colorectal cancer | circPTK2 | Interaction with protein | circPTK2 binding to protein vimentin. Silencing circPTK2 blunt tumour metastasis in a patient‐derived CRC xenograft model | 98 |
| circHIPK3 | MiRNA sponge | circHIPK3/miR‐7/c‐Myb. Knockdown of circHIPK3 markedly inhibited CRC cells proliferation, migration, invasion, and induced apoptosis in vitro and suppressed CRC growth and metastasis in vivo | 79 | |
| Colorectal cancer, osteosarcoma, hepatocellular carcinoma | CDR1as (or CiRS‐7) | MiRNA sponge | CDR1as (or CiRS‐7)/ miR‐7/EGFR, CCNE1, PI3KCD, and RAF1, promotion of tumorigenesis and invasion. CDR1as inhibition in vivo also induced tumour regression | 99 |
| Non‐small‐cell lung carcinoma | CDR1as (or CiRS‐7) | MiRNA sponge | CDR1as/miR‐219a‐5p/SOX5. Knockdown of circCDR1as inhibited the progression of NSCLC by decreasing cell viability, migration and invasion and increasing apoptosis | 100 |
| Gastric cancer | CDR1as (or CiRS‐7) | MiRNA sponge | CDR1as/miR‐7‐5p/REGγ. Knock‐down of CircRNA CDR1as specifically promoted the cytotoxic effects of low‐dose DB on GC cells instead of hepatocytes. | 101 |
| hsa_circ_0000291 | MiRNA sponge | hsa_circ_0000291/miR‐183/ITGB1. Silencing hsa_circ_0000291 suppressed GC cell metastasis and proliferation both in vivo and in vitro | 69 | |
| circ‐RanGAP1 | MiRNA sponge | circ‐RanGAP1/miR‐877‐3P/VEGFA. Inhibition of circ‐RanGAP1 decreased GC cell invasion and migration in vitro | 35 | |
| circ_PVT1 | MiRNA sponge | circ‐PVT1/miR‐124‐3p/ ZEB1. Circ‐PVT1 knockdown increased PTX sensitivity of GC in vivo | 102 | |
| circ_PVT1 | MiRNA sponge | circPVT1/miR‐199a‐5p/YAP1 and PI3K/AKT pathways. Silencing hsa_circ_PVT1 (circPVT1) suppressed the growth and metastasis of glioblastoma multiforme cells | 103 | |
| Osteosarcoma | circ_PVT1 | Knockdown of circPVT1 can weaken the resistance to doxorubicin and cisplatin of OS cells through decreasing the expression of ABCB1 | 61 | |
| Gliomas | circ‐TTBK2 | MiRNA sponge | circ‐TTBK2/miR‐217/ HNF1β/Derlin‐1. Knockdown of circ‐TTBK2 combined with miR‐217 overexpression can suppress tumorigenesis in vivo | 104 |
Reported circRNAs that have been identified to have tumour therapeutic potential in in vitro or in vivo experiments via different strategies, mainly gene therapy and immunotherapy.