Circular RNA circ‐PRKCI functions as a competitive endogenous RNA to regulate AKT3 expression by sponging miR‐3680‐3p in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Circular RNA (circRNA) is a new noncoding RNAs and plays an important role in many pathological processes. Recently, studies have shown that circular RNA_PRKCI (circ-PRKCI) regulates cell proliferation and cell migration of tumor cells. Esophageal carcinoma is a highly malignant digestive tract tumor, which is divided into esophageal adenocarcinoma and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. In this study, we studied whether circ-PRKCI might influence cell proliferation and cell migration in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Quantitative reverse transcription PCR was performed to detect the relative expression of circ-PRKCI in five cases of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and five cases of paired adjacent normal tissues. RNA immunoprecipitation assay and Luciferase assay confirm the direct interaction between miR-3680-3p and AKT3 or circ-PRKCI. Ethynyldeoxyuridine assays and cell counting Kit-8 were performed to evaluate the effect of miR-3680-3p or circ-PRKCI on cell proliferation, transwell assays were also performed to detect migration in vitro.We found circ-PRKCI is obviously upregulated in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and upregulation of circ-PRKCI stimulated cell migration and proliferation of ESCC cells. In the mechanism, we confirm that circ-PRKCI, as a molecular sponge of miR-3680-3p, upregulates the expression of AKT. In conclusion, our current studies have been revealing that circ-PRKCI/miR-3680-3p/AKT3 regulatory network plays an important role in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and that provide new insights into the pathogenesis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. K E Y W O R D S cell migration, cell proliferation, circular RNA_PRKCI (circ-PRKCI), esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, miR-3680-3p

Circular RNA hsa_circ_0000654 promotes esophageal squamous cell carcinoma progression by regulating the miR‐149‐5p/IL‐6/STAT3 pathway

“…28,29 For instance, circ_0006528 facilitates human breast cancer progression by activating the MAPK/ERK signaling pathway 30 ; circ_ 0058124 modulates the carcinogenesis and invasion of NOTCH3/GATAD2A papillary thyroid carcinoma with high expression linked to adverse pathological parameters in patients, 31 and circ-PRKCI enhances the proliferation and invasion of ESCC via upregulating AKT3 expression. 32 In this study, we demonstrated that compared with normal tissues, circ_0000654 expression in ESCC tissues was remarkably increased, and its high expression was linked to the higher T stage and lymph node metastasis of ESCC patients. These results reveal that circ_0000654 is expected to be a new biomarker for evaluating the prognosis of ESCC patients.…”

Emerging Role of Non-Coding RNAs in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…Overexpression plasmid or small interfering miRNA mimics and inhibitors are commonly used for transient overexpression or knockdown of miRNAs in ESCC cells [34,52,107]. RNA interference (RNAi), mainly involving siRNA and short hairpin RNA (shRNA), has been widely applied in knockdown of ncRNAs in ESCC cells [18,27,31,80]. However, the effectiveness of overexpression plasmid, siRNAs, miRNA mimics, and inhibitors is limited.…”

“…The biological functions of circRNAs have mainly been reported as miRNA sponging and transcription regulation [25,26]. These characteristics and functions of circRNAs have contributed to its roles in the biology of human cancers, including ESCC [27,28].…”

Circular RNAs and esophageal cancer

“…Compared with paracancerous tissues, the expressions of hsa_circ_0067934, circFNDC3B, circ-TTC17, hsa_circ_0006168, circPVT1 and hsa_circ_100873 were significantly up-regulated in EC tissues [39,40,42,43,56,57]. So far, cir-ITCH, circ-PRKCI, circRAD23B, cZNF292, circ-Foxo3, circGSK3 β, circLARP4 and hsa_ circ_0004771 have been shown to regulate the proliferation and apoptosis of EC cells through different signal pathways [35,37,50,[58][59][60][61][62]. In a word, different results suggest that circRNAs may promote or inhibit development of EC through different mechanisms (Fig.…”