Analysis of common targets for circular RNAs

BACKGROUND: The studies of functions of circular RNAs (circRNAs) are heavily focused on the regulation of gene expression through interactions with multiple miRNAs. However, the number of predicted target genes is typically overwhelming due to the synergistic complexity caused by two factors ─ the binding of multiple miRNAs to a circRNA and the existence of multiple targets for each miRNA. Analysis of common targets (ACT) was designed to facilitate the identification of potential circRNA targets. RESULTS: We demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed feature/measurement to assess which genes are more likely to be regulated by circRNAs with given sequences by calculating the level of co-regulation by multiple miRNAs. The web service is made freely available at http://lab-x-omics.nchu.edu.tw/ACT_Server. CONCLUSIONS: ACT allows users to identify potential circRNA-regulated genes and their associated pathways for further investigation. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12859-019-2966-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.