ReviewFrontiers in pharmacology2026
Circular RNAs in cancer: from biomarkers to vaccine-based immunotherapy.
Review in Frontiers in pharmacology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are endogenous, covalently closed RNA molecules generated through back-splicing that exhibit exceptional stability, evolutionary conservation, tissue-specific expression and diverse regulatory functions. Compared with conventional RNA-based therapeutic platforms, such as messenger RNAs (mRNAs), small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), circRNAs offer enhanced resistance to exonuclease-mediated degradation, prolonged intracellular persistence, and sustained protein expression. These characteristics have positioned circRNAs as promising candidates for cancer biomarkers and next-generation therapeutic platforms. Recent evidence indicates that they regulate multiple biological processes associated with tumour initiation and progression, including transcriptional regulation, miRNA sequestration, RNA-binding protein modulation, alternative splicing, cap-independent translation, immune signalling, and therapeutic resistance. Through interactions with innate and adaptive immune pathways, circRNAs regulate antigen presentation, cytokine production, immune-cell activation and tumour immune evasion, highlighting their importance in cancer immunotherapy. This review summarizes recent advances in circRNA biogenesis and their roles in cancer progression, therapeutic resistance, and immune regulation, with particular emphasis on engineered circRNAs as platforms for cancer vaccines and precision immunotherapy. We discuss advances in circRNA vaccine design, delivery, neoantigen targeting, biomarkers, and clinical translation, while highlighting key challenges including manufacturing, immunogenicity, tumor heterogeneity, regulatory requirements, and limited clinical validation. Overall, circRNAs represent a promising and versatile platform for cancer immunotherapy, with continued advances in RNA engineering, personalized neoantigen design, targeted delivery, and clinical evaluation expected to determine their potential for translation into effective and durable cancer treatments.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.