Circ_0058063 contributes to oral squamous cell carcinoma development by sponging miR-145-5p and upregulating SERPINE1

Interplay between miRNA expression and glucose metabolism in oral squamous cell carcinoma

OBJECTIVE

Given the urgent need for improved diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), this review aims to explore the intricate interplay between OSCC and alterations in glucose metabolism, with a particular focus on the pivotal role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in this context.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Data were extracted from a vast literature survey by using PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science search engines with relevant keywords.

RESULTS

In OSCC, miRNAs exert regulatory control over the expression of genes involved in glucose metabolism pathways. Dysregulation of specific miRNAs has been implicated in the modulation of key glycolytic enzymes and glucose transporters, intracellular signaling cascades, and interaction with transcription factors, all of which collectively affect glucose uptake and glycolysis, contributing significantly to the observed metabolic alterations in OSCC cells.

CONCLUSION

A comprehensive understanding of these intricate molecular interactions holds significant promise for the development of targeted therapeutic interventions and refined diagnostic approaches to treat OSCC patients.

MiRNA-145-5p inhibits gastric cancer progression via the serpin family E member 1- extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2 axis

BACKGROUND

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression and play a critical role in cancer physiology. However, there is still a limited understanding of the function and regulatory mechanism of miRNAs in gastric cancer (GC).

AIM

To investigate the role and molecular mechanism of miRNA-145-5p (miR145-5p) in the progression of GC.

METHODS

Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect miRNA expression in human GC tissues and cells. The ability of cancer cells to migrate and invade was assessed using wound-healing and transwell assays, respectively. Cell proliferation was measured using cell counting kit-8 and colony formation assays, and apoptosis was evaluated using flow cytometry. Expression of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-associated protein was determined by Western blot. Targets of miR-145-5p were predicated using bioinformatics analysis and verified using a dual-luciferase reporter system. Serpin family E member 1 (SERPINE1) expression in GC tissues and cells was evaluated using RT-PCR and immunohistochemical staining. The correlation between SERPINE1 expression and overall patient survival was determined using Kaplan-Meier plot analysis. The association between SERPINE1 and GC progression was also tested. A rescue experiment of SERPINE1 overexpression was conducted to verify the relationship between this protein and miR-145-5p. The mechanism by which miR-145-5p influences GC progression was further explored by assessing tumor formation in nude mice.

RESULTS

GC tissues and cells had reduced miR-145-5p expression and SERPINE1 was identified as a direct target of this miRNA. Overexpression of miR-145-5p was associated with decreased GC cell proliferation, invasion, migration, and EMT, and these effects were reversed by forcing SERPINE1 expression. Kaplan-Meier plot analysis revealed that patients with higher SERPINE1 expression had a shorter survival rate than those with lower SERPINE1 expression. Nude mouse tumorigenesis experiments confirmed that miR-145-5p targets SERPINE1 to regulate extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2 (ERK1/2).

CONCLUSION

This study found that miR-145-5p inhibits tumor progression and is expressed in lower amounts in patients with GC. MiR-145-5p was found to affect GC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion by negatively regulating SERPINE1 levels and controlling the ERK1/2 pathway.

Differential Expression of MicroRNA MiR-145 and MiR-155 Downstream Targets in Oral Cancers Exhibiting Limited Chemotherapy Resistance

New evidence has suggested that non-coding microRNAs play a significant role in mediating and modulating chemotherapy resistance, particularly among oral cancers. One recent study found that the upregulation of miR-145 and the downregulation of miR-155 strongly correlated with a limited chemotherapy resistance to Cisplatin, 5-Fluorouracil, and Paclitaxel, although the mechanism(s) responsible for these observations remain unidentified. Using commercially available cell lines of oral squamous cell carcinoma, RNA was isolated, converted into cDNA, and subsequently screened for the expression of downstream targets of miR-145 and miR-155 using qPCR. These results demonstrated the upregulation of miR-21, miR-125, miR-133, miR-365, miR-720, and miR-1246, as well as the downregulation of miR-140, miR-152, miR-218, miR-221, and miR-224. This screening also confirmed the differential expression and regulation of mir-145 and miR-155 among the cell lines with limited chemotherapy resistance (SCC15). In addition, several downstream targets of these specific microRNAs were upregulated by all oral cancer cell lines, such as MBTD1 and FSCN1, or downregulated in all cell lines, such as CLCN3, FLI-1, MRTFB, DAB, SRGAP1, and ABHD17C. However, three miR-145 downstream targets were identified in the least chemotherapy-resistant cells, exhibiting the differential upregulation of KCNA4 and SRGAP2, as well as the downregulation of FAM135A, with this expression pattern not detected in any of the other oral cancer cell lines. These data strongly support that the differential regulation of these three downstream targets may be related to the chemosensitivity of this oral cancer cell line. The potential involvement of these targets must be further investigated to determine how and whether mechanisms of these cellular pathways may be involved in the observed lack of chemotherapy resistance. These data may be important to design targets or treatments to reduce chemotherapy resistance and improve patient treatment outcomes.

Circ_0058063 Contributed to Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Development by Sponging miR-145 and Regulating PI3K/AKT Pathway

BACKGROUND

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are key regulators of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) progression. In this study, we aimed to clarify the regulatory roles of circ_0058063 and its effect on tumorigenesis in OSCC.

METHODS

Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was conducted to determine the expression levels of microRNA (miR)-145-5p and circ_0058063 in OSCC. Cell viability, adhesion, migration, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of OSCC cells were assessed using cell counting kit-8, cell adhesion, and transwell assays. Western blotting was performed to determine the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) and protein kinase B (AKT) phosphorylation levels. Xenograft tumor models were constructed to evaluate the tumorigenicity of OSCC cells in vivo. In addition, the interaction between circ_0058063 and miR-145-5p was validated via luciferase reporter and RNA immunoprecipitation assays.

RESULTS

Expression levels of circ_0058063 were elevated, whereas those of miR-145-5p were decreased in OSCC. Upregulation of circ_0058063 levels enhanced the viability, adhesion, migration, and EMT of OSCC cells in vitro and promoted tumorigenicity in vivo. Moreover, circ_0058063 promoted OSCC growth by upregulating the PI3K and AKT phosphorylation levels. miR-145-5p overexpression considerably inhibited the PI3K/AKT pathway and decreased OSCC cell viability, adhesion, migration, and EMT. Mechanistically, circ_0058063 sponged miR-145-5p and activated the PI3K/AKT pathway in OSCC cells.

CONCLUSION

Our results revealed that circ_0058063 functions as an oncogene via regulation of the PI3K/AKT pathway by targeting miR-145-5p in OSCC, suggesting its potential for OSCC diagnosis and treatment.

Circ_0058063 regulates cell vitality and proliferation in oesophageal squamous-cell carcinomas

Oesophageal squamous-cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a malignant tumor of the digestive system with a poor prognosis. Recent studies have shown the promoting effect of hsa_circ_0058063 (circ_0058063) on ESCC, but the potential regulatory mechanisms of circ_0058063 in ESCC remain largely unclear. The levels of circ_0058063, microRNA-4319 (miR-4319) and mRNA of thrombospondin-1 (THBS1) were indicated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction in ESCC tissues and cells. Meanwhile, the level of THBS1 was quantified by western blot analysis. In addition, the cell functions were examined by CCK8 assay, Edu assay, flow cytometry assay and transwell assay. Furthermore, the interplay between miR-4319 and circ_0058063 or THBS1 was detected by dual-luciferase reporter assay. Finally, an in vivo experiment was implemented to confirm the effect of circ_0058063. The level of circ_0058063 and THBS1 were increased, and the miR-4319 level was decreased in ESCC tissues in contrast to that in normal tissues and cells. For functional analysis, circ_0058063 deficiency inhibited cell vitality, cell proliferation, migration and invasion in ESCC cells, whereas promoted cell apoptosis. Moreover, miR-4319 was confirmed to repress the progression of ESCC cells by suppressing THBS1. In mechanism, circ_0058063 acted as a miR-4319 sponge to regulate the level of THBS1. Besides, circ_0058063 knockdown also attenuated tumour growth in vivo. Circ_0058063 facilitates the development of ESCC through increasing THBS1 expression by regulating miR-4319, which also offered an underlying targeted therapy for ESCC treatment.

BCMCMI: A Fusion Model for Predicting circRNA-miRNA Interactions Combining Semantic and Meta-path

More and more evidence suggests that circRNA plays a vital role in generating and treating diseases by interacting with miRNA. Therefore, accurate prediction of potential circRNA-miRNA interaction (CMI) has become urgent. However, traditional wet experiments are time-consuming and costly, and the results will be affected by objective factors. In this paper, we propose a computational model BCMCMI, which combines three features to predict CMI. Specifically, BCMCMI utilizes the bidirectional encoding capability of the BERT algorithm to extract sequence features from the semantic information of circRNA and miRNA. Then, a heterogeneous network is constructed based on cosine similarity and known CMI information. The Metapath2vec is employed to conduct random walks following meta-paths in the network to capture topological features, including similarity features. Finally, potential CMIs are predicted using the XGBoost classifier. BCMCMI achieves superior results compared to other state-of-the-art models on two benchmark datasets for CMI prediction. We also utilize t-SNE to visually observe the distribution of the extracted features on a randomly selected dataset. The remarkable prediction results show that BCMCMI can serve as a valuable complement to the wet experiment process.