circ‑0000212 promotes cell proliferation of colorectal cancer by sponging miR‑491 and modulating FOXP4 expression

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a lethal and common malignancy worldwide. Non-coding (nc)RNAs have been shown to modulate tumor progression in several types of cancer. The present study aimed to investigate the role of hsa_circ_0000212 in CRC, as a sponge of microRNA (miR)-491. The expression levels of miR-491 and forkhead box P4 (FOXP4) were analyzed using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas. The association between miR-491 and FOXP4 and the clinicopathological characteristics were also analyzed. A novel circular (circ)RNA, hsa_circ_0000212, was found to sponge miR-491 based on bioinformatics analysis. The potential binding site between miR-491 and FOXP4 or circ-0000212 was validated using luciferase and RNA immunoprecipitation assays. The expression levels and distribution of circ-0000212 was also determined. Cell Counting Kit-8 and colony formation assays were performed to determine the role of miR-491 or circ-0000212 on the proliferation of the CRC cells. Decreased miR-491 or increased FOXP4 expression levels were associated with the pathological stage in patients with CRC. In addition, miR-491 inhibited cell proliferation by targeting FOXP4. circ-0000212 was increased in CRC tissues and was predominantly localized in the cytoplasm. Furthermore, circ-0000212 augmented viability of the CRC cells by sponging miR-491 and modulating FOXP4. In conclusion, circ-0000212 may serve as a novel tumor-promoter and drug target in CRC.

Knockdown of hsa_circ_0043691 restrains the progression of gastric cancer by decoying miR‐1294 to target pre‐leukemia transcription factor 3

“…Circ‐PTPDC1 was overexpressed in GC, and deficiency of circ‐PTPDC1 inhibited GC progression 23 . In our study, hsa_circ_0043691 abundance was higher in GC tissue samples and cells, which was similar to previous research 24 . Nevertheless, lack of large sample sizes is a certain limitation in the study, which will be supplemented in future experiments.…”

“… 23 In our study, hsa_circ_0043691 abundance was higher in GC tissue samples and cells, which was similar to previous research. 24 Nevertheless, lack of large sample sizes is a certain limitation in the study, which will be supplemented in future experiments. Thereafter, silencing of hsa_circ_0043691 distinctly repressed cell proliferation, migration, invasion, angiogenesis, and glutaminolysis metabolites, but boosted GC cell apoptosis in vitro.…”

Low Expression of miR-491-3p Is Correlated with Lymph Node Metastasis in Gastric Cancer

“…Furthermore, miR-1207-5p as one of the ten miRNAs expressed significantly different among gastric cancer patients with or without LNM via miRNA microarray, which could serve as a useful biomarker in the prediction of LNM [ 13 ]. MiR-491-3p, a tumor suppressor miRNA, was found decreased in many solid tissues, including brain tumor [ 14 ], colorectal cancer [ 15 ], and retinoblastoma [ 16 ]. It was worth mentioning that miR-491-3p was downregulated in gastric cancer [ 17 ].…”

LncRNA FOXP4-AS1 Promotes the Progression of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma by Interacting With MLL2/H3K4me3 to Upregulate FOXP4

“…Each member has a highly conserved structural domain of approximately 100 amino acids (35). Numerous studies have shown that forkhead proteins can act as transcription factors to regulate the transcription of target genes (36)(37)(38). FOXP4, a member of the P subfamily of the forkhead box (FOX) family, is a novel transcription factor (39).…”