Finally a topic on hackernews that I am getting my PhD in..! Anyway, do you have any data indicating what percentage of circRNA is "free" in the plasma versus inside of other entities like platelets or extracellular vesicles (exosomes)?
The work with these molecules is early enough, that to my knowledge, there are no studies of this type that are published. And, in fact one could pose the same question for linear mRNA and ncRNA in exosomes (or ESVs). Most of the studies are on miRNA in ESVs, however we have done considerably work internally on characterizing long- mRNA and ncRNA in exosomes. These vesicles are fascinating!