Identification of CircRNA–miRNA Networks for Exploring an Underlying Prognosis Strategy for Breast Cancer

Abstract

Aim: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) still have many potential functions in the process of tumor development that are not completely understood. The study aims to explore novel circRNAs and their mechanisms of action in breast cancer (BCa). Materials & methods: A combination strategy of RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) technique, quantitative real-time PCR and bioinformatic analysis was employed to identify the potential mechanisms involving differentially expressed circRNAs in the serum exosomes and tissues of BCa patients. Results: The expression levels of hsa-circRNA-0005795 and hsa-circRNA-0088088 were significantly different both in serum exosomes and tissues and might function as competing endogenous RNAs and play vital roles in BCa development. Conclusion: We constructed two circRNA–miRNA networks and provided new insight into the prognosis and therapy of BCa using circRNAs from serum exosomes.

Keywords::

• breast cancer
• ceRNA
• circRNAs
• exosomes
• miRNA

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/suppl/10.2217/epi-2019-0058

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This study was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (no. 2016YFC0905900), National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 81872365), the ‘333’ Talent Project of Jiangsu Province (no. 4[2016]) and Innovation Team Construction Project of Nanjing Medical University (no. JX102GSP201727), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 81702613), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 81602551). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (no. 2016YFC0905900), National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 81872365), the ‘333’ Talent Project of Jiangsu Province (no. 4[2016]) and Innovation Team Construction Project of Nanjing Medical University (no. JX102GSP201727), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 81702613), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 81602551). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.