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HEREDITAS(Beijing) ›› 2015, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (8): 756-764.doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.15-073

• Reviews • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The biological functions and regulations of competing endogenous RNA

Jingqiu Li1, 2, Jie Yang1, 2, Ping Zhou1, 2, Yanping Le1, 2, Zhaohui Gong1, 2   

  1. 1. Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China;
    2. Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Pathophysiology, Ningbo 315211, China
  • Received:2015-02-09 Revised:2015-04-07 Online:2015-08-20 Published:2015-08-20

Abstract: Recent studies demonstrate that RNA species could regulate each other by competing for shared microRNA response elements (MREs). This regulatory model is called competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA). Currently, the identified ceRNAs cover coding and non-coding RNAs. The latter includes pseudogene transcripts, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), circular RNAs (circRNAs) and so on. In this review, we summarize the biological functions of regulatory networks consisting of various types of ceRNAs and their roles in the pathological and physiological processes. Additionally, several factors that may regulate ceRNAs were discussed.

Key words: competing endogenous RNA, microRNA response element, pseudogene, long non-coding RNA, circular RNA