Recent Breakthroughs in the Decoding of Circulating Nucleic Acids and their Applications to Human Diseases

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About this Research Topic

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Background

Liquid biopsy is a source of individualized profiling and is becoming a very promising diagnostic approach with various benefits over conventional invasive sampling. Liquid biopsy serves as a source to identify various key biomarkers, including circulating cell-free nucleic acids (ccfNAs).

Circulating cell-free nucleic acids signature covers; cell-free DNA (cfDNA), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), mRNA, microRNAs (miRNAs), circular RNA (circRNA), exosomal RNAs (exRNAs), and long non-coding RNAs (IncRNAs). These ccfNAs are associated with different epigenetic alterations that are linked to disease-related abnormalities. With the development of next-generation sequencing, ccfNAs have been effectively exploited as a current advance in precision medicine due to its clinical relevance in diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive applications.

Despite the important advances that have been made in recent years in the field of ccfNAs as liquid biopsies, only a few ccfNAs have been approved for clinical use. Inadequate understanding of the mechanistic behavior of ccfNAs in circulation, as well as the gap between theoretical and clinical aspects, and the inconsistencies in results between studies due to the various preanalytical and analytical factors, have all contributed to the delay in their widespread clinical application.

This Research Topic will highlight the most updated knowledge in the field of circulating cell-free nucleic acids and their association with different physiological and pathological conditions, covering their biological function along with their clinical validations, seeking for a disease-specific biomarker pattern. Another area we are interested in covering is the latest techniques in machine learning algorithms for decoding the complex data associated with ccfNA analysis in various physiological and pathological conditions that will enable the discovery of efficient biomarkers linked to specific disease states.

We welcome the submission of Original Research and Review Articles covering, but not limited to, any of the following points;
• Implications of cell-free nucleic acids in various health disorders as molecular signals.
• New insights into cell-free nucleic acids biomarkers (cfDNA, ctDNA, and cfRNA) for tumor screening, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment management.
• New techniques and methodologies to characterize molecular features of cell-free nucleic acids associated with diseases.
• New suggested mechanisms for the biogenesis and release of cell-free nucleic acids into circulation in different pathological conditions.
• Cell-free nucleic acid-related biomarkers for prediction of chemotherapy or immunotherapy response in cancer patients
• Computational approaches to analyze data of cell-free nucleic acids and bridging with other omics data.
• Practical solutions to the existing challenges associated with the use of circulating nucleic acids in clinics.

Keywords: Circulating Nucleic Acids, Disease, Biopsy, RNA, cfDNA, ctDNA, mRNA, microRNA, circDNA, exRNA

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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