Mboat2, membrane bound O-acyltransferase domain containing 2, is a phospholipid-modifying enzyme. It has been identified to play roles in multiple biological processes. Mboat2 can regulate lipid metabolism, and is also involved in ferroptosis surveillance, cell-cell communication, cell cycling, and immune-related biological functions such as leukocyte activation in T-cell-receptor signaling pathway, inflammatory response, and antigen processing and presentation [2,5].

In pancreatic cancer, Mboat2 overexpression accelerates cell proliferation and migration, enhances CDK2 and CCNA2 expression for cell cycle progression, and reduces CD8+ T-cell infiltration [5]. In intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), the circRNA derived from Mboat2 (circMBOAT2) promotes ICC progression and lipid metabolism reprogramming by stabilizing PTBP1 to facilitate FASN mRNA cytoplasmic export [1]. In coronary chronic total occlusion (CTO), circ-MBOAT2 regulates angiogenesis via the miR-495/NOTCH1 axis and associates with myocardial perfusion [3]. In pancreatic cancer, circ-MBOAT2 knockdown represses tumor progression and glutamine catabolism by miR-433-3p/GOT1 axis [4].

In summary, Mboat2 and its derived circRNA play crucial roles in various diseases, especially in cancers. Studies on Mboat2-related KO/CKO mouse models or other loss-of-function experiments have helped to reveal its functions in promoting tumor progression, regulating lipid metabolism, angiogenesis, and ferroptosis surveillance, providing potential therapeutic targets for these diseases [1,2,3,4,5].