hsa_circRNA_100873 upregulation is associated with increased lymphatic metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a type of endogenous non-coding RNA with multiple binding sites that specifically bind to microRNAs (miRNAs) and serve an important role in cellular regulatory networks. Patients exhibit varying levels of lymphatic metastasis in a clinical setting. The present study investigated the association between circRNAs and lymphatic metastasis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The tissue samples were divided into three groups, including early tumor stage associated with advanced nodal stage (T1 group), advanced tumor stage associated with early nodal stage (T2 group) and healthy esophageal epithelial tissues as the control group (C group). Gene chip analysis identified circRNAs, and those with possible regulatory functions were validated by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis (RT-qPCR). circRNAs containing miRNA response element (MRE) sequences were obtained, and circRNA/miRNA prediction software was used to predict miRNAs that may interact with circRNA. A total of 12,275 circRNAs were detected, including 861 with statistically significant differences. A comparison between the T1 and C groups identified 152 upregulated circRNAs and 431 downregulated ones, while a comparison between the T2 and C groups identified 187 upregulated and 481 downregulated circRNAs. A T1/T2 group comparison revealed that four circRNAs were upregulated and seven were downregulated (fold change >1.5; P<0.05). The RT-qPCR data and gene chip analysis consistently identified hsa_circRNA_100873 as differentially expressed among the examined groups. A total of five potential MREs and complementary sequences were selected for hsa_circRNA_100873. The results of the present study indicated that multiple differentially expressed circRNAs are involved in the pathogenesis of ESCC, and that upregulation of hsa_circRNA_100873 may be associated with increased lymphatic metastases in ESCC.

Circular RNA hsa_circ_0000700 promotes cell proliferation and migration in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma by sponging miR-1229

“…Therefore, it is of clinical significance to further investigate novel therapeutic targets and sensitive diagnostic biomarkers in ESCC to improve the poor patient prognosis. Increasing evidence indicates that circRNAs, characterized by covalently closed-loop structures, are closely associated with the occurrence and development of multiple cancers, including breast cancer 21 , gastric cancer 22 , and ESCC 23 , making them potential therapeutic targets.…”

Bioinformatics-Based Identification of a circRNA-miRNA-mRNA Axis in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinomas

“…The circRNAs are newly found noncoding RNAs that participate in cancer development [ 29 ] and are currently being investigated as potential cancer biomarkers [ 30 , 31 ]. Leading to poor prognosis in ESCC, upregulated circRNA_100876 expression can accelerate cell proliferation and metastasis [ 32 ], while the upregulation of circRNA_100873 is associated with increased lymphatic metastasis in ESCC [ 33 ]. A further study reported that circGSK3 overexpression enhances multiple metastasis and invasion of the tumor [ 34 ].…”

Circular RNAs Sparkle in the Diagnosis and Theranostics of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

“…For example, in humans, induction is observed across a variety of tissues and is consistently observed for circRNAs spliced by both the major (U2) and minor (U12) spliceosome ( Barrett and Salzman, 2016 ). This may be an induction that circRNAs exhibit a high degree of tissue specificity, and some correlates with the size of tumor, with the TNM stage, or metastasis ( Zheng et al, 2019 ). Due to this specificity of circRNAs, they can be used as biomarkers for early cancer detection.…”