circad

circad catalogs circular RNAs (circRNAs) associated with human diseases and provides curated evidence and experimental annotations to support disease-focused research.

Key Features:

• Disease-associated circRNA catalog: Contains over 1,300 circRNAs linked to approximately 150 diseases.
• ICD mapping: Maps each disease association to International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes.
• Literature-supported associations: Links circRNA–disease entries to supporting evidence from published literature.
• PCR primer and assay annotations: Provides assay and PCR primer information including experimentally validated primer sequences.
• Expression metrics: Records reported fold change and statistical significance for circRNA expression.
• CircRNA structural annotation: Describes back splicing that joins exon ends to form covalently closed loop structures and notes consequent stability compared to linear RNAs.

Scientific Applications:

• Disease mechanism studies: Enables investigation of circRNA roles in disease mechanisms via curated associations and evidence.
• Biomarker development: Supports identification and validation of circRNAs as diagnostic biomarkers using provided primer and expression data.
• Functional experiments: Facilitates design of PCR-based and other functional studies through available primer sequences and assay details.
• Translational research: Informs exploratory work on diagnostic and therapeutic applications of disease-associated circRNAs.

Methodology:

Manual curation of published literature to document circRNA–disease associations, mapping to ICD codes, and annotation of PCR primer sequences along with reported fold change and statistical significance.