MINI REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1666606
This article is part of the Research TopicHarnessing Molecular Insights for Enhanced Drug Sensitivity and Immunotherapy in CancerView all 37 articles
Circular RNAs and Immunotherapy in Retinoblastoma: Emerging Biomarkers and Precision Therapeutic Strategies
Provisionally accepted
- 1Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China
- 2The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China
- 3Sanmenxia Central Hospital of Henan University of Science and Technology, Sanmenxia, China
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Retinoblastoma (RB) immunotherapy represents a paradigm shift in managing this aggressive pediatric eye cancer, overcoming limitations of conventional therapies. Recent breakthroughs reveal how circular RNAs (circRNAs) critically modulate the tumor-immune microenvironment: oncogenic circRNAs promote immune evasion by upregulating PD-L1 and suppressing T cell activity, while tumor-suppressive circRNAs such as circMKLN1 enhance antigen presentation and cytotoxic responses. The convergence of circRNA biology with immunotherapy has yielded innovative strategies, including circRNA-targeted immune checkpoint blockade to reverse T cell exhaustion, circRNA-engineered CAR-T cells with improved tumor homing and persistence, and circRNA-based oncolytic viruses that stimulate immunogenic cell death. Notably, exosomal circRNAs serve dual roles as both immune modulators and minimally invasive biomarkers for predicting immunotherapy response. While preclinical studies demonstrate remarkable synergy between circRNA inhibition and PD-1/CTLA-4 blockade in RB models, clinical translation requires optimization of delivery systems and combinatorial regimens. This review summarizes the latest evidence positioning circRNAs as central regulators of anti-tumor immunity and provides a strategic roadmap for the integration of circRNA-based approaches in precision immunotherapy for RB.
Keywords: Retinoblastoma, circular RNAs, Tumor metastasis, Drug Resistance, biomarkers, Immunotherapy
Received: 17 Jul 2025; Accepted: 01 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Ma, Dang and Lei. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yalong Dang, Sanmenxia Central Hospital of Henan University of Science and Technology, Sanmenxia, China
Fang Lei, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China
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