Role of circular RNAs in gastric cancer: Recent advances and prospects

Circular RNA (circRNA) is a newly discovered non-coding RNA with special structure, which is widely expressed in eukaryotic organisms and mainly located in the cytoplasm. circRNAs participate in gene regulation by working as miRNA sponges that block the inhibitory effect of miRNA on its target genes. In addition, circRNAs can bind to RNA binding proteins to regulate gene expression. Based on characteristics of stability, expression specificity and participation in gene regulation, circRNAs are expected to be biomarkers for early diagnosis of cancer or potential targets for cancer therapy. With the help of bioinformatics analysis, circRNA microarray analysis and high-throughput sequencing technology, more circRNAs were discovered to participate in the progression of gastric cancer (GC) over the past three years. This article gives an overview of these recent research focusing on the roles of circRNAs in GC and highlights the advances.