Oncogenic hsa_circ_0091581 promotes the malignancy of HCC cell through blocking miR-526b from degrading c-MYC mRNA

ABSTRACT

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are new types of endogenous non-coding RNAs, which are identified to have critical regulatory roles in cancer biology. In this study, we aimed to find the abnormally expressed circRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and investigate the function and mechanism of circRNAs in HCC progression. Upregulation of hsa_circ_0091581 was identified by RNA-sequencing and validated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Hsa_circ_0091581 expression was correlated with tumor size, disease-free survial and overall survival of HCC patients. Functionally, hsa_circ_0091581 could promote the proliferation of HCC cells in vitro. Mechanism research showed that hsa_circ_0091581 promoted cell proliferation via hsa_circ_0091581/miR-526b/c-Myc axis in HCC cells. Also, the expression of hsa_circ_0091581 in HCC could be regulated by c-Myc. These results revealed that hsa_circ_0091581/miR-526b/c-Myc/hsa_circ_0091581 positive feedback loop plays a vital role in HCC progression and hsa_circ_0091581 may be a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for HCC.

KEYWORDS:

• Circular RNA
• hepatocellular carcinoma
• miR-526b
• c-Myc

Disclosure statement

All the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All the procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Shenzhen University General Hospital and Southwest Hospital of Third Military Medical University.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from each patient included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [81430063] and Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Program [2019B030301009].