CircVAMP3 is a circRNA with a role in alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma cell cycle progression

Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a class of covalently closed RNA formed by a back-splicing reaction, have been involved in the regulation of diverse oncogenic processes. In this article we describe circVAMP3, a novel circular RNA overexpressed in alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. We demonstrate that circVAMP3 has a differential m6A pattern opposed to its linear counterpart, suggesting that the two isoforms can be differently regulated by such RNA modification although their sequence similarity. Moreover, we show how circVAMP3 depletion in alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma cells can impair cell cycle progression, e.g. through the downregulation of the AKT pathway, pointing to this non-coding RNA as a novel regulator of the alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma progression and a putative future therapeutic target. Overall design: High-throughput sequencing of Poly-A+ RNA from alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma cells transfected either with a control siRNA (si-SCR) or with a siRNA targeting circVAMP3 back-splicing junction (si-circVAMP3).