Circ_0014359 promotes oral squamous cell carcinoma progression by sponging miR-149

  • Xubin Chen Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hainan General Hospital (Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University), Haikou, Hainan, China
  • Jingxin Chen Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hainan General Hospital (Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University), Haikou, Hainan, China
  • Liangbin Fu Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hainan General Hospital (Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University), Haikou, Hainan, China
  • Jimin Chen Departments of Pathology, Hainan Province People’s Hospital, Haikou, Hainan, China
  • Yang Chen Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hainan General Hospital (Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University), Haikou, Hainan, China
  • Feng Liu Department of Stomatology, Hunan Province People’s Hospital, Changsha, Hunan, China

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the role and mechanism of circ_0014359 in the OSCC. We firstly investigated the expression levels of circ_0014359 in OSCC tissues and cell lines. Then, the effects of knocking down circ_0014359 on cellular viability, apoptosis, migration, and invasion of OSCC cell lines were observed by cell counting kit-8 assay, flow cytometry, and transwell assay. Xenografts mouse model was established to explore the in vivo effect of circ_0014359 on the tumor volume and size of OSCC. We found that circ_0014359 was highly expressed in the OSCC tissues and cell lines compared to the normal controls (P<0.05). The expression of circ_0014359 was associated with the survival of patients (P<0.05). For the OSCC cell lines, circ_0014359 knock down induced apoptosis and inhibited migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of OSCC cells (P<0.001). In vivo, silencing the circ_0014359 blocked the growth of OSCC tumors. The circ_0014359 can directly interact with the micro-RNA-149 (miR-149). Inhibition of miR-149 can rescue the inhibitory effects of circ_0014359 knock down on OSCC cells. The circ_0014359-miR-149 pathway may be a novel target for developing strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of OSCC.

Published
2022-05-18
Section
Articles