Chemical circularization of in vitro transcribed RNA opens new avenues for circular mRNA design

Circularization is at the frontier of therapeutic messenger RNA (mRNA) enhancements. Currently available enzymatic and ribozymatic methods for generating circular RNAs (circRNAs) face several challenges related to sequence limitations, purification, and sub-optimal biological activity. The chemical circularization of synthetic RNA fragments potentially overcomes these limitations but is applicable only to extremely short sequences. Here, we report a novel approach for accessing circular RNAs based on the chemical circularization of in vitro transcribed RNA. We efficiently accessed chemically circularized RNAs (chem-circRNAs) by making in vitro transcribed precursor RNAs modified at the 5′ end with an ethylenediamine moiety, which undergoes an intramolecular reaction with the periodate-oxidized RNA 3′ end under reductive amination conditions. We demonstrate that this method is modification-compatible and applicable to various sequences. Additionally, we report methods for the effective separation of chem-circRNAs from their linear precursors. Using this approach, we prepared multiple chemically-obtained circular RNAs (chem-circRNAs; 35–1500 nt long) with circularization efficiencies reaching up to 60%. We show that protein-coding chem-circRNAs are translationally active in living cells and exhibit increased durability, similar to enzymatically circularized mRNAs. We also demonstrate that this approach enables unprecedented access to chemically modified circRNAs, such as circ-mRNAs incorporating a functional endocyclic N7-methylguanosine cap or modified with N1-methylpseudouridine within the RNA body. Notably, circRNAs containing an endocyclic cap structure engage in the most efficient, cap-dependent mechanism of translation. Our approach makes chemically-modified circularized full-length protein-coding RNAs easily accessible, thereby opening new avenues for the design, modification, and functionalization of circular mRNAs.