Papadopoulos N, Trifylli EM. Role of exosomal circular RNAs as microRNA sponges and potential targeting for suppressing hepatocellular carcinoma growth and progression. World J Gastroenterol 2024; 30(9): 994-998 [PMID: 38577187 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i9.994]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Nikolaos Papadopoulos, MD, PhD, Doctor, The Second Department of Internal Medicine, 401 General Army Hospital of Athens, 138 Mesogeion Ave, Athens 11525, Greece. nipapmed@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 7, 2024; 30(9): 994-998 Published online Mar 7, 2024. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i9.994
Role of exosomal circular RNAs as microRNA sponges and potential targeting for suppressing hepatocellular carcinoma growth and progression
Nikolaos Papadopoulos, Eleni-Myrto Trifylli
Nikolaos Papadopoulos, The Second Department of Internal Medicine, 401 General Army Hospital of Athens, Athens 11525, Greece
Eleni-Myrto Trifylli, The First Department of Internal Medicine, 417 Share Army Fund Hospital, Athens 11521, Greece
Author contributions: Papadopoulos N designed the overall concept and outline of the manuscript; Trifylli EM contributed to the discussion and design of the manuscript; Papadopoulos N and Trifylli EM contributed to the writing and editing of the manuscript, illustrations, and review of the literature.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Nikolaos Papadopoulos, MD, PhD, Doctor, The Second Department of Internal Medicine, 401 General Army Hospital of Athens, 138 Mesogeion Ave, Athens 11525, Greece. nipapmed@gmail.com
Received: November 29, 2023 Peer-review started: November 29, 2023 First decision: December 26, 2023 Revised: January 3, 2024 Accepted: February 18, 2024 Article in press: February 18, 2024 Published online: March 7, 2024
Abstract
In this editorial, we comment on the article by Lyu et al published in the recent issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology (2023; 2219-2840). Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a frequently encountered and highly aggressive primary liver cancer, which remains the third-commonest cause of cancer-related death despite the current therapeutic modalities. There is urgency in developing novel therapeutic approaches, such as by manipulating extracellular vesicles, which constitute a highly heterogeneous nanoparticle population that contains various cargoes. These cargoes have a pivotal role in cell-to-cell communication and can modify the functional level of the recipient cells via their uptake by other recipient cells. Exosomal non-coding RNAs have particular evolving significance in HCC, such as circular RNAs, which have been found differentially expressed in normal hepatic and HCC tissues. The aberrations in their expression levels have a key role in the HCC development and progression and the overall prognosis. In this editorial, we will shed light on the emerging role of exosomal circular RNAs in HCC development and progression, focusing on the oncogenic or potentially tumor suppressive effect of mesenchymal stem cells-derived exosomal non-coding RNAs.
Core Tip: This paper sheds light on the role of exosomal circular RNAs as microRNA sponges and their potential targeting for suppressing hepatocellular carcinoma growth and progression.
