Circular RNA ciRS-7 has been reported to act as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) of the miRNA miR-7, resulting in reduced miR-7 activity and increased miR-7-targeted transcripts. However, it is unknown if ciRS-7 harbors other miRNAs with regulatory roles in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The present study determined that the expression of ciRS-7 in TNBC clinical specimens and representative cells is significantly higher than other breast cancer subtypes. Functionally, downregulation of ciRS-7 inhibited cell migration and invasion of TNBC cells. Knockdown of ciRS-7 expression also inhibited the liver and lung metastasis of TNBC cells Mechanistic studies revealed that ciRS-7 contains 20 miR-1299-binding sites and functions as a ceRNA of miR-1299 in TNBC cells. High expression of ciRS-7 maintains the high migration and invasion properties of TNBC cells by acting as a ceRNA of miR-1299 to enhance the expression of matrix metalloproteinases family members (MMP). Circular RNA ciRS-7 is highly expressed in TNBC tumor specimens and cells, and its downregulation inhibits cell migration and invasion of TNBC cells and In addition, ciRS-7 functions as a ceRNA of miR-1299 to enhance the expression of MMPs, which maintains the high migration and invasion properties of TNBC cells. .

An ultrathin Janus polyamide separating layer with opposite charges was successfully prepared through the “self-regulation” process of low temperature interfacial polymerization.

Autophagy is a kind of intracellular degradation pathway which could be regulated by many noncoding RNAs. ciRS‐7, also called CDR1as, is a circular RNA that is relatively well studied at present. In our recent study, we have found that the expression of ciRS‐7 is abnormally increased in the esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), and may function as an oncogene to accelerate ESCC progression through sponging miR‐876‐5p. Meanwhile, another study showed that ciRS‐7 is highly expressed in the triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) and may function as a competing endogenous RNA of miR‐1299 to maintain the high migration and invasive capacity of TNBC cells. Of interest, in the present work, we observed that ciRS‐7 could inhibit starvation or rapamycin‐induced autophagy of ESCC cells and miR‐1299 promotes starvation or rapamycin‐induced autophagy of ESCC cells. Mechanically, miR‐1299 could directly bind to the 3′‐untranslated region of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and then affects its downstream Akt‐mTOR pathway in ESCC cells. Consistent with our past findings, ciRS‐7 could also sponge miR‐1299 in ESCC cells. Taken together, this study has shed light on that circular RNA ciRS‐7 inhibits autophagy of ESCC cells by functioning as miR‐1299 sponge to target EGFR signaling.

a b s t r a c tState-of-the-art nanofiltration (NF) membranes generally positively or negatively charged could not remove both multivalent cations and anions once and for all according to the Donnan Exclusion. Designing NF membranes with facile approach for effective removal of multivalent-salt without compromising the permeation is still a tough challenge. In this work, we demonstrate a sort of novel NF membrane consists of a positively charged interlayer sandwiched between substrate and negatively charged outermost surface. The restructured NF membranes with dually charged composite layer were fabricated via amination-interfacial polymerization (A-IP) on poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) substrate. The resultant NF membranes exhibited super high salts rejection of up to 99.0% MgCl 2 , 99.0% MgSO 4 , 98.5% CaCl 2 , 95.7% Pb(NO 3 ) 2 , and 96.0% Na 2 SO 4 . Additionally, reasonably high flux (8.7 L m À 2 h À 1 bar À 1 , (pure water permeability (PWP))) approaching those of commercial NF membranes was obtained due to the relatively loose structure of the composite layer. Furthermore, the transport and separation mechanism of the restructured NF membranes reveals that the significant upgraded separation performance could be attributed to the synergistic effect of the dually charged layer. Moreover, the dually charged composite layer shown none unfavorable interaction and the resultant NF membranes possessed good interfacial stability.

Zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) has been widely recognized as an important driver of tumor growth and metastasis. However, nothing is known about ZEB1-regulated circular (circ)RNAs in cancer. In the current study, we evaluated the function of a novel ZEB1-regulated circRNA derived from the WWC3 gene locus, circWWC3 in breast cancer progression. We found that ZEB1 upregulated circWWC3 expression but not the linear WWC3 mRNA expression. circWWC3 is highly expressed in breast cancer tissues and is associated with the poor prognosis of breast cancer patients. Silencing of circWWC3 significantly suppresses the proliferation, migration, and invasion of breast cancer cells. Mechanically, circWWC3 upregulates multiple oncogenes’ expression of the Ras signaling pathway through acting as the sponge of microRNA (miR)-26b-3p and miR-660-3p. Moreover, short hairpin (sh)RNA-mediated knockdown of circWWC3 partially antagonized ZEB1-mediated breast cancer growth and metastasis in vivo . Our findings reveal that ZEB1-mediated upregulation of circWWC3 promotes breast cancer progression through activating Ras signaling pathway, which provides a potential therapeutic target and prognostic biomarker for breast cancer.