Acute central nervous system (CNS)
injuries, including
ischemic stroke,
traumatic brain injury (TBI),
spinal cord injury (SCI) and
subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), are the most common cause of death and disability around the world. As a kind of non-coding
ribonucleic acids (RNAs) with endogenous and conserve,
circular RNAs (
circRNAs) have recently attracted great attentions due to their functions in diagnosis and treatment of many diseases. A large number of studies have suggested that
circRNAs played an important role in brain development and involved in many
neurological disorders, particularly in acute CNS
injuries. It has been proposed that regulation of
circRNAs could improve cognition function, promote angiogenesis, inhibit apoptosis, suppress
inflammation, regulate autophagy and protect blood brain barrier (BBB) in acute CNS
injuries via different molecules and pathways including
microRNA (
miRNA), nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB), ph1osphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-
kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/AKT), Notch1 and ten-eleven translocation (TET). Therefore,
circRNAs showed great promise as potential targets in acute CNS
injuries. In this article, we present a review highlighting the roles of
circRNAs in acute CNS
injuries. Hence, on the basis of these properties and effects,
circRNAs may be developed as therapeutic agents for acute CNS injury patients.