Circular RNA Reagents and Primer Sets

Circular RNAs or circRNAs represent long, non-coding RNA molecules that are circular in shape and covalently closed. These unique transcripts are often generated by back-splicing events from exons of protein encoding genes. They do not contain a 5’ or 3’ end nor do they have a poly-A tail. Evidence has emerged that thousands of circRNAs exist and they may be involved in regulating gene expression at both the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels through interaction with microRNAs or other molecules to disrupt their normal function. Thus, circRNAs may play an important role in a variety of diseases including cancer, vascular disease, neurological disorders, arthritis and diabetes. They may also be of use as biomarkers.

Quantitative measurement of circRNAs may be done using real time PCR. However, careful preparation of RNA must be considered as circular and linear RNA molecules have different properties. The scientific literature contains a number of methods that describe ways to isolate and detect circRNA. We provide some of the reagents necessary to process RNA and prepare a cDNA template. The design of primer sets to detect circRNA is also an important step. Since circRNAs may be occur as a result of back-splicing events that occur from exon joining, the use of divergent, rather than convergent, primer sets can be used to selectively detect and quantitate these RNA molecules. Our goal is to provide unique primer sets to be used for analyzing circRNA by qPCR. PCR arrays may also be performed from our circRNA PCR Primer Libraries.