RNA-Seq profiling of circular RNAs in human colorectal cancer 5-fluorouracil resistance and potential biomarkers

Abstract

BACKGROUND Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a commonly diagnosed cancer of the digestive system worldwide. Although chemotherapeutic agents and targeted therapeutic drugs are currently available for CRC treatment, drug resistance is a problem that cannot be ignored and needs to be solved. AIM To explore the relationship between circular RNA (circRNA) and CRC drug resistance. circRNA plays a key role in the occurrence and development of cancers, but its function in the process of drug resistance has not been widely revealed. METHODS To explore the role of circRNA in 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) resistance, we performed the circRNA expression profile in two CRC cell lines and their homologous 5-Fu resistant cells by high-throughput sequencing. RESULTS We validated the differentially expressed circRNAs in other two paired CRC cells, confirmed that circ_0002813 and circ_0000236 could have a potential competitive endogenous RNA mechanism and be involved in the formation of 5-Fu resistance. And we combined the sequencing results of mRNA to construct the regulatory network of circRNA-miRNA-mRNA. CONCLUSION Our study revealed that circ_0002813 and circ_0000236 may as the biomarkers to predict the occurrence of 5-Fu resistance in CRC.

Research progress of circRNA and its role in the development of colorectal cancer

“…For example, circ_0001178 obtained an AUC value of 0.945 in the diagnostic evaluation of CRC patients with liver metastasis. It is one of the most suitable circRNAs for CRC diagnosis in current research results and is expected to be the diagnostic marker of CRC liver metastasis [30]. circITGA7 [31], circ_0000567 [32], circ_0001649 [33] and some other circRNAs have AUC values between 0.8 and 0.9, which also have good CRC diagnosis accuracy.…”