Circular RNA hsa_circ_0051040 Promotes Hepatocellular Carcinoma Progression by Sponging miR-569 and Regulating ITGAV Expression

CircGNAO1 suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma progression and metastasis via sponging miR-182-5p and regulating FOXO1 expression

BACKGROUND

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive malignant tumor with poor prognosis. Using high-throughput sequencing, we identified a novel circRNA, circGNAO1, which is downregulated in HCC tissues compared to adjacent tissues. However, the potential functions and mechanisms of circGNAO1 in HCC metastasis remain unclear.

METHODS

qRT-PCR was used to detect the expression of circGNAO1, miR-182-5p, and FOXO1 in HCC cells and tissues. Bioinformatics analysis, RNA pull-down assyas, and dual-luciferase reporter assays were employed to verify the interaction between circGNAO1 and miR-182-5p. Functional experiments were conducted using circGNAO1 overexpression and knockdown cell lines, including Transwell, wound healing, and EdU assays. Liver metastasis models and subcutaneous xenograft mouse models were established to analyze the effect of circGNAO1 on HCC metastasis and growth in vivo.

RESULTS

High-throughput sequencing and qRT-PCR results showed that the expression of circGNAO1 dramatically decreased in HCC tissues. Functionally, in vivo and in vitro experiments verified that overexpression of circGNAO1 inhibited the proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT of HCC cells, while knockdown of circGNAO1 promoted these behaviors. Mechanistically, we have demonstrated that circGNAO1 functions as a sponge for miR-182-5p to regulate FOXO1 expression, thereby activating the TGF-β/Smad3 signaling pathway and EMT process.

CONCLUSIONS

circGNAO1 suppresses the progression and metastasis of HCC through the miR-182-5p/FOXO1 axis, and circGNAO1 may be an efficient therapeutic target in HCC.

CircGPC3 promotes hepatocellular carcinoma progression and metastasis by sponging miR-578 and regulating RAB7A/PSME3 expression

CircRNAs are a class of highly stable noncoding RNAs that play an important role in the progression of many diseases, especially cancer. In this study, high-throughput sequencing was used to screen for abnormally expressed circRNAs, and we found that circGPC3 was overexpressed in HCC tissues. However, the underlying mechanism of circGPC3 in the development and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unknown. In our study, we found that circGPC3 was significantly upregulated in HCC tissues and cells and that its overexpression was positively correlated with overall survival, TNM stage and lymph node metastasis. In vivo and in vitro experiments showed that circGPC3 knockdown repressed HCC cell migration, invasion and proliferation and promoted apoptosis. Mechanistically, circGPC3 promoted HCC proliferation and metastasis through the miR-578/RAB7A/PSME3 axis. Our results demonstrate that circGPC3 contributes to the progression of HCC and provides an intervention target for HCC.

Construction of a ceRNA regulatory network to explore potential pathogenesis mechanisms involved in human hepatocellular carcinoma

Worldwide, primary liver cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related death. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for the majority of primary liver cancers. Recent studies have shown that circular RNAs (circRNAs) that interact with microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in the occurrence and development of various tumours. Transcriptional profile analysis was used to analyse expression of circRNAs in HCC in this study. The top ten upregulated circRNAs were selected and validated by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in another 34 HCC patients. MiRNAs and mRNAs downstream of these circRNAs were explored through database analysis, and finally, the competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) networks were constructed for 5 selected circRNAs. We identified 9658 differentially expressed circRNAs by transcriptional profile analysis. QRT-PCR was performed to validate the top ten upregulated circRNAs, and five circRNAs were selected for further analysis. The miRNAs and mRNAs downstream of these five circRNAs were predicted to construct ceRNA network diagrams. Further analysis revealed five circRNA-miRNA-mRNA axes that correlate negatively with HCC prognosis. Numerous differentially expressed circRNAs exist in HCC, and they can regulate the biological behaviour of HCC through ceRNA networks. Bioinformatics analysis showed that ceRNA regulatory axes involved in HCC have high diagnostic and prognostic value and deserve further exploration.

The pivotal role of EMT-related noncoding RNAs regulatory axes in hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a major health problem worldwide, being the leading cause of cancer-related deaths, with limited treatment options, especially in its advanced stages. Tumor resistance is closely associated with the activation of the EMT phenomenon and its reversal, being modulated by different molecules, including noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). Noncoding RNAs have the potential to function as both tumor suppressors and oncogenic molecules, controlling the malignant potential of HCC cells. Basically, these molecules circulate in the tumor microenvironment, encapsulated in exosomes. Their impact on cell biology is more significant than originally expected, which makes related research rather complex. The temporal and spatial expression patterns, precise roles and mechanisms of specific ncRNAs encapsulated in exosomes remain primarily unknown in different stages of the disease. This review aims to highlight the recent advances in ncRNAs related to EMT and classifies the described mechanism as direct and indirect, for a better summarization. Moreover, we provide an overview of current research on the role of ncRNAs in several drug resistance-related pathways, including the emergence of resistance to sorafenib, doxorubicin, cisplatin and paclitaxel therapy. Nevertheless, we comprehensively discuss the underlying regulatory mechanisms of exosomal ncRNAs in EMT-HCC via intercellular communication pathways.

Multifaceted role of NF-κB in hepatocellular carcinoma therapy: Molecular landscape, therapeutic compounds and nanomaterial approaches

The predominant kind of liver cancer is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that its treatment have been troublesome difficulties for physicians due to aggressive behavior of tumor cells in proliferation and metastasis. Moreover, stemness of HCC cells can result in tumor recurrence and angiogenesis occurs. Another problem is development of resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy in HCC cells. Genomic mutations participate in malignant behavior of HCC and nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB) has been one of the oncogenic factors in different human cancers that after nuclear translocation, it binds to promoter of genes in regulating their expression. Overexpression of NF-κB has been well-documented in increasing proliferation and invasion of tumor cells and notably, when its expression enhances, it induces chemoresistance and radio-resistance. Highlighting function of NF-κB in HCC can shed some light on the pathways regulating progression of tumor cells. The first aspect is proliferation acceleration and apoptosis inhibition in HCC cells mediated by enhancement in expression level of NF-κB. Moreover, NF-κB is able to enhance invasion of HCC cells via upregulation of MMPs and EMT, and it triggers angiogenesis as another step for increasing spread of tumor cells in tissues and organs. When NF-κB expression enhances, it stimulates chemoresistance and radio-resistance in HCC cells and by increasing stemness and population of cancer-stem cells, it can provide the way for recurrence of tumor. Overexpression of NF-κB mediates therapy resistance in HCC cells and it can be regulated by non-coding RNAs in HCC. Moreover, inhibition of NF-κB by anti-cancer and epigenetic drugs suppresses HCC tumorigenesis. More importantly, nanoparticles are considered for suppressing NF-κB axis in cancer and their prospectives and results can also be utilized for treatment of HCC. Nanomaterials are promising factors in treatment of HCC and by delivery of genes and drugs, they suppress HCC progression. Furthermore, nanomaterials provide phototherapy in HCC ablation.