Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 14|pp 14885—14896

Circular RNA DHX33 promotes malignant behavior in ccRCC by targeting miR-489-3p/MEK1 axis

Jie Wang^1,², Jian-Qiu Zhang^1,², Xiao-Lei Zhao³, Jing-Yu Lu⁴, Ze-Ming Weng^1,², Zhen-Min Ding⁴, Feng-Qiang Yang^1,^2,⁵

¹Department of Urology, Ninghai First Hospital, Zhejiang 315600, China
²Department of Urology, Ninghai Hospital, Branch of Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, Zhejiang 315600, China
³Department of Urology, Huaihe Hospital of Henan University, Kaifeng 475000, China
⁴Department of Anesthesia, Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200120, China
⁵Department of Urology, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai 200072, China

* Equal contribution

Received: March 11, 2020Accepted: June 4, 2020Published: July 27, 2020

Copyright: © 2020 Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Mounting evidence indicates that circular RNAs modulate the initiation of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). However, their specific roles in the malignancy of ccRCC is understudied. Here, we present a novel circular RNA, circDHX33, that is up-regulated in ccRCC cell lines and tissues. Upregulated circDHX33 in ccRCC patients significantly correlates with advanced TNM stage and metastasis. Suppressing circDHX33 expression inhibits the proliferation and invasion of cultured cells, and suppresses tumor growth in vivo. Mechanistically, we show that circDHX33 promotes ccRCC progression by sponging miR-489-3p and modulating MEK1 expression. In conclusion, our findings suggest that circDHX33 plays a role in promoting ccRCC via the miR-489-3p/MEK1 axis and may serve as a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of ccRCC patients