In recent years, circular RNAs have been shown to serve as essential regulators in several human cancers. Nevertheless, the function and mechanism of CircRNA in cervical cancer remain elusive. In the present study, we showed that hsa_circRNA_101996 was highly expressed in cervical cancer tissues compared with matched normal tissues by bioinformatics analysis. We showed that the expression level of hsa_circRNA_101996 in cervical cancer tissues was positively correlated with TNM stage, tumor size, and lymph node metastasis. Moreover, higher levels of hsa_circRNA_101996 were related to poor outcomes of cervical cancer patients. We found that knockdown of hsa_circRNA_101996 significantly inhibited the proliferation, cell cycle, migration, and invasion of cervical cancer cells. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that hsa_circRNA_101996 served as a sponge of miR‐8075, which targeted TPX2 in cervical cancer cells. We showed that miR‐8075 that was downregulated in cervical cancer tissues repressed cervical cancer cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Furthermore, we validated that upregulation of TPX2 by hsa_circRNA_101996‐mediated inhibition of miR‐8075 contributed to cervical cancer proliferation, migration, and invasion. Taken together, our findings revealed a novel mechanism that hsa_circRNA_101996‐miR‐8075‐TPX2 network promoted cervical cancer progression.

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Highlights Heterogeneous functional connectivity alterations of precuneus in OCD. Reduced functional connectivity between dorsal posterior precuneus and vermis in OCD. Dorsal precuneus-cerebellum functional connectivity contributes to OCD pathology.

Objective: The imbalance in neurotransmitter and neuronal metabolite concentration within cortico-striato-thalamocortical (CSTC) circuit contributes to obsessive-compulsive disorder's (OCD) onset. Previous studies showed that glutamate mediated upregulation of resting-state activity in healthy people. However, there have been few studies investigating the correlational features between functional and neurochemical alterations in OCD. Methods: We utilize a combined resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1 H-MRS) approach to investigate the altered functional connectivity (FC) in association with glutamatergic dysfunction in OCD pathophysiology. Three regions of interest are investigated, i.e., medial prefrontal cortex and bilateral thalamus, for seed-based whole-brain FC analysis as well as MRS data acquisition. There are 23 unmedicated adult OCD patients and 23 healthy controls recruited for brain FC analysis. Among them, 12 OCD and 8 controls are performed MRS data acquisition. Results: Besides abnormal FC within CSTC circuit, we also find altered FCs in large-scale networks outside CSTC circuit, including occipital area and limbic and motor systems. The decreased FC between right thalamus and right middle occipital gyrus (MOG) is correlated with glutamatergic signal within right thalamus in OCD patients. Moreover, the FC between right thalamus and right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) is associated with glutamate level in right thalamus, specifically in patient's group. Finally, the FC between right thalamus and right MOG is correlated with patient's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) compulsion and total scores, while the right thalamic glutamatergic signal is associated with YBOCS-compulsion score. Conclusion: Our findings showed that the coupled intrinsic functional-biochemical alterations existed both within CSTC circuit and from CSTC to occipital lobe in OCD pathophysiology.

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