vCircTrappist: a new bioinformatic tool uncovering viral circular RNAs, under the guidance of Damien Coupeau in the frame of a consortium involving UNamur, ULB and ULiège

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) differ from linear RNAs in that they lack free ends. This structural feature makes them more stable in the extracellular environment. Virus-derived circRNAs have been shown to play key roles in viral infection and oncogenesis. Unlike cellular circRNAs, which are mainly formed through a process called canonical backsplicing, viral circRNAs often arise from atypical, non-canonical splicing events and are further characterized by the presence of numerous repeated regions. These unique traits make their identification particularly challenging. To date, most existing bioinformatics tools relied on backsplicing signatures, which fail to identify the full diversity of circRNA junctions observed in the viral world.

To overcome this limitation, the team of Prof. Benoît Muylkens and Dr. Damien Coupeau (UNamur, NARILIS, URVI) developed vCircTrappist, a novel bioinformatics pipeline specifically tailored to the specificities of viral genomes. From high-throughput RNA sequencing data, the tool provides a robust approach to identify circRNAs produced by pathogenic viruses, including herpesviruses, adenoviruses, retroviruses, leukemia viruses and influenza viruses. By increasing the discovery rate of circRNAs, vCircTrappist paves the way for further research into their precise roles in infection and pathogenesis, and ultimately their potential as novel therapeutic targets.

This pioneering work was led by Alexis Chasseur, a former PhD student at NARILIS, under the co-supervision of Dr. Damien Coupeau and Prof. Benoît Muylkens. The research is part of an FNRS-funded PDR project launched in 2023, and is carried out in collaboration with Prof. Carine Van Lint (ULB), Prof. Benjamin Dewals (ULiège), Dr. Carlo Yague-Sanz (UNamur) and Prof. Nicolas Gillet (UNamur).

The researchers have just presented vCircTrappist in a new publication in PLOS Pathogens: Chasseur et al., 2025.