REGULATORY ROLE OF CIRCULAR RNAS IN CELLULAR SIGNALING PATHWAYS

Abstract

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have become a unique category of endogenous non-coding RNAs with essential roles in cell signaling networks. The purpose of the study is to provide a systematic analysis of circRNA involvement in the regulation of important signaling pathways and how they might be relevant to disease pathogenesis. An in-depth literature and database-driven analysis was performed to assess circRNA biogenesis, molecular pathways, and interactions that are pathway specific. It was discovered that CircRNAs are able to regulate signaling cascades in a manner that is mainly mediated by microRNA (miRNA) sponging, RNA-binding proteins interaction, and transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation. It is worth noting that circRNAs have a great regulatory impact on key pathways such as PI3K/AKT, Wnt/ -catenin, MAPK/ERK, NF-kB and TGF- beta, and influence the processes of cellular proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation. CircRNA expression dysregulation was found to be always related to the development of different diseases, especially cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegeneration. Moreover, circRNA mRNA miRNA circRNA networks provide new integrative analysis to support the potential of circRNAs as diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Although there has been progress in high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics tools, there are still issues of functional validation and clinical translation. On the whole, this paper is a systematic review of the role of circRNA in signaling regulation and highlights their recent prominence in the field of molecular biology and exact medicine.