Affiliations: [a] Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China | [b] Clinical College, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Anhui Medical University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China | [c] Institute of Precision of Medicine, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Correspondence:
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Corresponding authors: Yuehong Shen and Hongyu Yang, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, No. 1120 Lianhua Road, Shenzhen 518036, Guangdong, China. Tel.: +86 755 83923333 7211; Fax: +86 755 8392 3333 6666; E-mail: yhshen@pkuszh.com;0520@pkuszh.com.
Abstract: BACKGROUND: As a novel class of endogenous ncRNAs, Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been verified to be involved in the carcinogenesis and tumor progression. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the potential function of a candidate circRNA hsa_circ_0036988 in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). METHODS: The altered expression of hsa_circ_0036988 was validated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in OSCC samples and OSCC cell lines. The associations between the levels of hsa_circ_0036988 and the clinicopathological features were statistically analysed. The function of hsa_circ_0036988 in OSCC were evaluated via a series of in vitro experiments by using constructed plasmids or siRNA. Western blotting assays were conducted to evaluate changes in protein expression levels. RESULTS: Hsa_circ_0036988 was significantly downregulated in OSCC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues. While low expression of hsa_circ_0036988 was highly correlated with lymph nodes metastasis. Overexpression or knockdown of hsa_circ_0036988 significantly affected the proliferation, migration and invasion of OSCC cells. Furthermore, the altered expression of hsa_circ_0036988 have an impact on the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related protein expression levels. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicated that hsa_circ_0036988 may affect cell proliferation, migration and invasion by regulating EMT progress, which might provide a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of OSCC.
