Abstract 3288: the Landscape of Circular RNA in Cancer

Abstract Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are an intriguing class of RNA due to their covalently closed structure, relatively high stability, and implicated roles in gene regulation. Here we used exome capture RNA-Seq, a non-poly(A) high-throughput RNA-sequencing protocol, to detect and characterize circRNAs across >800 cancer samples. When compared against the two gold-standard methods (Ribo-Zero and RNase-R), capture sequencing significantly enhanced the enrichment of circRNAs and preserved accurate circular-to-linear ratios. We compiled the detected circRNAs from capture sequencing into the public OncoCirc database, the most comprehensive catalogue of circRNA species to-date. With this database, we identified the best circRNAs to serve as biomarkers for prostate cancer and were able to detect a novel class of circRNAs involved two genes. OncoCirc will serve as a valuable resource for the development of circRNA for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes for other cancers, as well as the study of circularization as an intriguing RNA splicing process. Citation Format: Josh N. Vo, Yajia Zhang, Sudhanshu Shukla, Lanbo Xiao, Dan Robinson, Yi-Mi Wu, Sisi Gao, Carl Engelke, Xuhong Cao, Alexey Nesvizhskii, Arul Chinnaiyan. The landscape of circular RNA in cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3288.