scholarly journals The Circular RNA hsa_circ_0001445 Regulates the Proliferation and Migration of Hepatocellular Carcinoma and May Serve as a Diagnostic Biomarker

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianwei Zhang ◽  
Hu Zhou ◽  
Wei Jing ◽  
Ping Luo ◽  
Shili Qiu ◽  
...  

Circular RNAs (circRNA), a class of noncoding RNAs, have been found to be involved in various diseases. Here, the expression levels of the circRNA hsa_circ_0001445 in 73 pairs of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and adjacent nontumor tissues were investigated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Our data demonstrate that the hsa_circ_0001445 levels were significantly decreased in HCC tissues (P<0.001) and markedly associated with the number of tumor foci (P=0.014). Furthermore, in vitro approaches showed that overexpression of hsa_circ_0001445 promoted apoptosis and inhibited proliferation, migration, and invasion of HCC-derived cells, suggesting that hsa_circ_0001445 might be involved in the development of HCC. In addition, we found that the plasma hsa_circ_0001445 transcription levels in HCC patients were lower than those in cirrhosis (P<0.001) and hepatitis B (P<0.001) patients as well as in healthy controls (P<0.001). In fact, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that plasma hsa_circ_0001445 could be a fairly accurate marker to distinguish HCC cases from healthy controls as well as patients with cirrhosis or hepatitis B.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min-Cheng Yu ◽  
Guang-Yu Ding ◽  
Pei-Yao Fu ◽  
Peng Ma ◽  
Xiao-Dong Zhu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of regulatory RNAs with complex roles in healthy and diseased tissues. However, the oncogenic role of circRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains poorly understood, including the mechanisms by which the circRNA UBAP2 contributes to tumorigenesis. Methods: We analyzed the expression of circUBAP2 in 20 paired samples of HCC and healthy tissue as well as in seven HCC cell lines via quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Functional experiments, such as CCK8 viability assays, colony formation assays, wound healing, transwell assays, and flow cytometry, were conducted to assess the effects of circUBAP2 in vitro. To further elucidate the mechanisms by which circUBAP2 acts, we conducted dual-luciferase assays, western blots, RNA pull-down assays, and rescue experiments. Results: circUBAP2 was highly upregulated in most HCC tissues and was associated with poor prognosis. HCC patients with high circUBAP2 expression had greater vascular invasion and worse differentiation. Functionally, circUBAP2 overexpression enhanced HCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion and inhibited apoptosis. Furthermore, we found that circUBAP2 upregulated c-Myc expression by sponging miR-1294, thus contributing to hepatocarcinogenesis. Inhibiting circUBAP2 expression in HCC attenuated the oncogenic effects of c-Myc. Conclusions: These findings suggest that circUBAP2 promotes HCC growth and metastasis. circUBAP2 may have value as an independent prognostic biomarker or as a new target for the treatment of HCC.


2011 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying-Jun Yang ◽  
Hui Chen ◽  
Ping Huang ◽  
Cheng-Hua Li ◽  
Zi-He Dong ◽  
...  

Purpose: To investigate the levels of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) DNA in the plasma of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and to evaluate the diagnostic value and correlation of hTERT DNA with clinical parameters in HCC. Methods: A real-time quantitative fluorescent polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR) system was designed and evaluated. Plasma samples were collected from 60 HCC patients, 21 patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and 29 healthy controls. Plasma DNA was extracted and quantified by FQ-PCR. The diagnostic value of plasma hTERT DNA levels and their relationships with clinical characteristics were analyzed statistically. Results: Plasma levels of hTERT DNA in HCC patients were significantly higher than in HBV patients (4.18×104±4.94×104 copies/μl vs 1.21×104±6.63×103 copies/μl, P=0.003) and healthy controls (4.18×104±4.94×104 copies/μl vs 1.44×104±6.61×103 copies/μl, P < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated a sensitivity of 64% and a specificity of 90% for the ability of hTERT DNA levels to detect malignancy at a cutoff value of 1.87×104 copies/μl. Association analysis revealed that plasma hTERT DNA levels were closely related to tumor size, portal vein cancer embolus and TNM stage (P=0.013, P=0.010, and P=0.029, respectively), but were not associated with lymph node metastasis, hepatitis B surface antigen, or α-fetoprotein (AFP) (all P > 0.05). The levels of plasma hTERT DNA in HCC patients with AFP ≤20 ng/ml were significantly higher than in HBV patients (4.59×104±4.98×104 copies/μl vs 1.44×104±6.63×103 copies/μl, P=0.016) and in healthy controls (4.59×104±4.98×104 copies/μl vs 1.21×104±6.63×103 copies/μl, P=0.001). Conclusions: Quantitation of plasma hTERT DNA by FQ-PCR may provide a novel complementary tool with potential clinical applications for the screening and detection of HCC. Plasma hTERT DNA has the potential to be a broad tumor marker for common cancers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
JiangSheng Zhao ◽  
GuoFeng Chen ◽  
Jingqi Li ◽  
Shiqi Liu ◽  
Quan Jin ◽  
...  

Abstract Background PR55α plays important roles in oncogenesis and progression of numerous malignancies. However, its role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unclear. This study aims to characterize the functions of PR55α in HCC. Methods PR55α expressions in HCC tissues and paired healthy liver samples were evaluated using Western blot and tissue microarray immunohistochemistry. We knocked down the expression of PR55α in SMMC-7721 and LM3 cell lines via small interfering and lentivirus. In vitro cell counting, colony formation, migration and invasion assays were performed along with in vivo xenograft implantation and lung metastases experiments. The potential mechanisms involving target signal pathways were investigated by RNA-sequencing. Results PR55α expression level was suppressed in HCC tissues in comparison to healthy liver samples. Decreased PR55α levels were correlated with poorer prognosis (P = 0.0059). Knockdown of PR55α significantly promoted cell proliferation and migration, induced repression of the cell cycle progression and apoptosis in vitro while accelerating in vivo HCC growth and metastasis. Mechanistic analysis indicated that PR55α silencing was involved with MAPK/AKT signal pathway activation and resulted in increased phosphorylation of both AKT and ERK1/2. Conclusions This study identifies PR55α to be a candidate novel therapeutic target in the treatment of HCC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Fei Pan ◽  
Dongqing Zhang ◽  
Na Li ◽  
Mei Liu

circRNAs (circular RNAs) are a family of noncoding RNAs and have diverse physiological and pathological functions. However, the functions and mechanisms of circRNAs in the development and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) remain largely unknown. Here, we aimed to explore the functions and roles of circFAT1(e2) in CRC. qRT-PCR revealed that circFAT1(e2) in CRC tumor tissues was upregulated compared with that in adjacent normal tissues and was also upregulated in CRC cell lines. Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) against circFAT1(e2) were used to decrease the expression of circFAT1(e2) in HCT116 and RKO cells in vitro. The roles of circFAT1(e2) in CRC cell metastasis and proliferation were then determined by transwell and CCK-8 assays. The results showed that circFAT1(e2) silencing markedly suppressed CRC growth. Moreover, we identified circFAT1(e2) as a promoter of CRC metastasis. Knockdown of circFAT1(e2) evidently reduced HCT116 and RKO cell migration and invasion. Furthermore, the regulatory relationship between circFAT1(e2) and its target miRNAs was verified by a luciferase reporter assay. We demonstrated that circFAT1(e2) could sponge miR-30e-5p, which regulated the expression level of integrin α6 (ITGA6), the downstream target gene of miR-30e-5p. Rescue assays demonstrated that knockdown of miR-30e-5p enhanced CRC proliferation and migration via ITGA6. Taken together, our results reveal the novel oncogenic roles of circFAT1(e2) in CRC through the miR-30e-5p/ITGA6 axis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Weilu Zhang ◽  
Ting Fu ◽  
Zhenjun Guo ◽  
Ye Zhang ◽  
Lei Zhang ◽  
...  

Background. There is an urgent need to identify ideal serological biomarkers that not only are closely related to disease progression from hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) but also have high specificity and sensitivity. We conducted this study to analyze whether miR-375 has a potential value in the early prediction of the progression from HBV-related hepatitis or cirrhosis to HCC. Methods. A total of 177 participants were enrolled. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the predictive capability of selected miR-375 for HBV-HCC. We upregulated the miR-375 expression in HepG2, HepG2.2.15, and HepAD38 cells to determine its effect on cellular proliferation and migration, in vitro using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assays. Results. Serum miR-375 levels decreased in order from healthy controls to chronic hepatitis B (CHB) without cirrhosis, followed by cirrhosis, and finally, HBV-HCC patients. miR-375 levels were significantly lower in HBeAg-positive and HBV DNA-positive patients than negative (P<0.05) and significantly lower in patients with elevated alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) than normal levels (P<0.05). miR-375 might be a biomarker for HBV-HCC, with a high area under the curve (AUC) of 0.838 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.780 to 0.897; sensitivity: 73.9%; specificity: 93.0%). The AUC (0.768 vs. 0.584) and sensitivity (93.8% vs. 75.0%) for miR-375 were higher than those for AFP. The overexpression of miR-375 noticeably inhibited proliferation and migration in HepG2, HepG2.2.15, and HepAD38, especially in HepG2.2.15 and HepAD38, which are stably infected with HBV. Conclusions. Serum miR-375 levels are closely related to disease progression from HBV-related hepatitis or cirrhosis to HCC.


Oncogenesis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenjie Xia ◽  
Qixing Mao ◽  
Bing Chen ◽  
Lin Wang ◽  
Weidong Ma ◽  
...  

Abstract The proposed competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) mechanism suggested that diverse RNA species, including protein-coding messenger RNAs and non-coding RNAs such as long non-coding RNAs, pseudogenes and circular RNAs could communicate with each other by competing for binding to shared microRNAs. The ceRNA network (ceRNET) is involved in tumor progression and has become a hot research topic in recent years. To date, more attention has been paid to the role of non-coding RNAs in ceRNA crosstalk. However, coding transcripts are more abundant and powerful than non-coding RNAs and make up the majority of miRNA targets. In this study, we constructed a mRNA-mRNA related ceRNET of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and identified the highlighted TWIST1-centered ceRNET, which recruits SLC12A5 and ZFHX4 as its ceRNAs. We found that TWIST1/SLC12A5/ZFHX4 are all upregulated in LUAD and are associated with poorer prognosis. SLC12A5 and ZFHX4 facilitated proliferation, migration, and invasion in vivo and in vitro, and their effects were reversed by miR-194–3p and miR-514a-3p, respectively. We further verified that SLC12A5 and ZFHX4 affected the function of TWIST1 by acting as ceRNAs. In summary, we constructed a mRNA-mRNA related ceRNET for LUAD and highlighted the well-known oncogene TWIST1. Then we verified that SLC12A5 and ZFHX4 exert their oncogenic function by regulating TWIST1 expression through a ceRNA mechanism.


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qinnan Yu ◽  
Pei Liu ◽  
Guangye Han ◽  
Xiangdong Xue ◽  
Derong Ma

Abstract Background: Circular RNA (circRNA) circPDSS1 is a recently identified oncogene in gastric cancer, while its roles in other types of cancer are unknown. We investigated the functions of circPDSS1 in urothelial bladder cancer (UBC). Materials and methods: Seventy-two patients (50 males and 22 females, age 38–69 years, mean: 52.3 ± 6.3 years) with UBC were enrolled in Gansu Provincial People’s Hospital from August 2015 to August 2018. RT-qPCR was used to measure gene expression levels in both biopsies from UBC patients and in vitro cultivated HT-1197 and UMUC3 cells. Cell transfections were performed to analyze gene interactions. Cell proliferation, transwell migration and invasion assays were performed to analyze the effects of transfections on HT-1197 and UMUC3 cell proliferation, migration and invasion, respectively. Results: We found that circPDSS1 was up-regulated in UBC. Expression levels of circPDSS1 were increased with increase in clinical stages. MiR-16 was down-regulated and correlated with circPDSS1 in UBC. Overexpression of circPDSS1 led to down-regulation of miR-16, while miR-16 overexpression failed to significantly affect circPDSS1. Overexpression of circPDSS1 led to increased proliferation, invasion and migration rates of UBC cells. Overexpression of miR-16 not only led to inhibited proliferation, invasion and migration of UBC cells, but also attenuated the effects of circPDSS1 overexpression. Conclusion: Therefore, circRNA circPDSS1 may promote UBC by down-regulating miR-16.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiqian Chen ◽  
Liyun Zheng ◽  
Songquan Wu ◽  
Chenying Lu ◽  
Bufu Tang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is an aggressive malignancy with a poor prognosis, with no effective therapy other than surgical resection. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) serve as a brand-new class of transcription products among abundant cancer processes. Nevertheless, the mechanisms account for their modification in CCA remain unknown. Methods: First, microarray sequencing was applied to detect the difference of circRNAs expression between CCA and corresponding non-tumor tissues. We utilized qRT-PCR to measure circ-0006302 levels in CCA cells and specimens. Gain/loss of-function assays and animal model of CCA were performed for the purpose of revealing the functions of circ-0006302 on the invasion, migration, and proliferation of CCA. We performed dual luciferase reporter, RNA-FISH and rescue assays for clarifying the mechanism behind. Results: In CCA tissues and cell lines circ-0006302 was highly expressed relatively. In vitro, overexpression of circ-0006302 intensifies the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the invasion, migration, and growth of CCA cells; and intensifies the growth as well as metastasis of tumors in a CCA mouse model. Furthermore, it was elucidated that circ-0006302 sponged miR-1299 to upregulate PD‐L1 expression. Through the process above, circ-0006302 binds to miR-1299 and emancipates PD-L1, facilitating the invasion, migration, and proliferation in CCA cells. Momentously, the results obtained revealed that circ-0006302 silencing elevated the expression of interferon (IFN)‐γ, and interleukin (IL)‐4 but diminished the IL-10 expression, while these effects could be reversed by miR-1299 inhibitor.Conclusion: circ-0006302 silence blocked the CCA progression via intensifying miR‐1299‐targeted downregulation of PD‐L1. Our conclusion provides novel therapeutic tactics for treating this fatal disease.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Zhang ◽  
Yachong Liu ◽  
Haisu Tao ◽  
He Zhu ◽  
Yonglong Pan ◽  
...  

AbstractAccumulating evidences indicate that circular RNAs (circRNAs), a class of non-coding RNAs, play important roles in tumorigenesis. However, the function of circRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma is largely unknown. CircRNA microarray was performed to identify abnormally expressed circRNAs in HCC tissue samples. We conducted Kaplan–Meier survival analysis to explore the significance of circUBE2J2 in clinical prognosis. Then, we examined the functions of circUBE2J2 in HCC by cell proliferation, migration, and mouse xenograft assay. We identified miR-370-5P as a circUBE2J2-related microRNA by using biotin-labeled circUBE2J2 probe to perform RNA antisense purification (RAP) assay in HCC cells. The dual luciferase reporter assay and RNA pulldown assays were employed to verify the relationships among circUBE2J2, miRNA-370-5P, and KLF7. Microarray analysis and qRT-PCR verified a circRNA termed circUBE2J2 that was downregulated in HCC. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed that downregulated circUBE2J2 was correlated with poorer survival. CircUBE2J2 expression in HCC cells was selectively regulated via luciferase reporter assays; circUBE2J2 and KLF7 were observed to directly bind to miR-370-5P. Furthermore, knockdown of circUBE2J2 in HCC could downregulate KLF7, the target of miR-370-5P, thus promoting the proliferation and migration of HCC cells. Then the related experiment suggested that circUBE2J2 could regulate the expression of KLF7 by sponging miR-370-5p. In summary, we infer that circUBE2J2 may act as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to regulate KLF7 expression through sponging miR-370-5P and play a regulatory functions in HCC. CircUBE2J2 may be a diagnostic biomarker and potential target for HCC therapy.


2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Zhang ◽  
Jing Zhang ◽  
Pengfei Li ◽  
Ting Li ◽  
Zhiqin Zhou ◽  
...  

AbstractMacrophage-derived exosomes (Mφ-Exo) have multidimensional involvement in tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis, but their regulation in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is not fully understood. RBPJ has been implicated in macrophage activation and plasticity. In this study we assess the role of exosomes derived from RBPJ-overexpressed macrophages (RBPJ+/+ Mφ-Exo) in HCC. The circular RNA (circRNA) profiles in RBPJ+/+ Mφ-Exo and THP-1-like macrophages (WT Mφ)-Exo was evaluated using circRNA microarray. CCK-8, Transwell, and flow cytometry analyses were used to evaluate the function of Mφ-Exo-circRNA on HCC cells. Luciferase reporter assays, RNA immunoprecipitation, and Pearson’s correlation analysis were used to confirm interactions. A nude mouse xenograft model was used to further analyze the functional significance of Mφ-Exo-cirRNA in vivo. Our results shown that hsa_circ_0004658 is upregulated in RBPJ+/+ Mφ-Exo compared to WT Mφ-Exo. RBPJ+/+ Mφ-Exo and hsa_circ_0004658 inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis in HCC cells, whereas hsa_circ_0004658 knockdown stimulated cell proliferation and migration but restrained apoptosis in vitro and promotes tumor growth in vivo. The effects of RBPJ+/+ Mφ-Exo on HCC cells can be reversed by the hsa_circ_0004658 knockdown. Mechanistic investigations revealed that hsa_circ_0004658 acts as a ceRNA of miR-499b-5p, resulting in the de-repression of JAM3. These results indicate that exosome circRNAs secreted from RBPJ+/+ Mφ inhibits tumor progression through the hsa_circ_0004658/miR-499b-5p/JAM3 pathway and hsa_circ_0004658 may be a diagnostic biomarker and potential target for HCC therapy.


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