Abstract: Bladder cancer (BCa) is the 10th most prevalent malignancy worldwide and remains a crucial cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a large class of endogenous non-coding RNAs, contain unique covalent closed structures and their biogenesis and turnover are regulated by multiple factors. Recently, multiple circRNAs have been found to serve as important factors in several biological processes such as tumorigenesis. An increasing amount of research discovered that circRNAs are dysregulated in multiple cancer tissues compared with matched normal tissues, especially in BCa, indicating that circRNAs can act as biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of BCa. In this review, we focus on the biogenesis, properties, turnover, and functions of circRNAs, summarizing their potential functions and clinical implications in BCa.
Keywords: circRNA, circular RNA, biogenesis, microRNA sponge, bladder cancer, biomarker