Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 17|pp 17209—17223

CircRNA circ_0072995 promotes the progression of epithelial ovarian cancer by modulating miR-147a/CDK6 axis

Jin Ding^1,², Qingwei Wang², Nan Guo², Hao Wang³, He Chen⁴, Guantai Ni², Peiling Li¹

¹Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150086, Heilongjiang, P.R. China
²Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, First Affiliated Hospital of Wannan Medical College, Wuhu 241000, Anhui, P.R. China
³Department of Gynecology, International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 310000, P.R. China
⁴Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Shenzhen Second People’s Hospital, First Hospital of Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518000, Guangzhou, P.R. China

* Equal contribution

Received: February 20, 2020Accepted: May 27, 2020Published: September 2, 2020

Copyright: © 2020 Ding 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

Background: Increasing evidence has indicated that circular RNAs (circRNAs) play vital roles in modulating tumor progression. However, regulatory roles and underlying mechanisms of circRNA circ_0072995 in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) are not well characterized.

Results: Circ_0072995 was up regulated in EOC afflicted tissues and cell lines (HO8910 and A2780), and was mainly located in the cytoplasm. The expression of circ_0072995 was associated with the pathological grade of EOC for respective patients. Functional experiments revealed that circ_0072995 promoted EOC cell proliferation, migration, induced apoptosis, as well as enhanced tumorigenesis in vivo. Mechanistic analyses indicated that circ_0072995 may have acted as a sponge of miR-147a such as to relieve repressive effects of miR-147a upon its target CDK6.

Conclusions: Our results revealed that circ_0072995 promoted EOC progression through the circ_0072995/miR-147a/CDK6 axis and may represent a strategy for treatment of EOC afflicted patients.

Methods: Expression of circ_0072995 was evaluated in 40 EOC tissue samples and cell lines by qRT-PCR. The location of circ_0072995 was determined via nuclear-cytoplasmic fractionation. A series of functional experiments facilitated determinations of effects of circ_0072995 on EOC progression in vitro, and in vivo. Underlying mechanisms and influence of circ_0072995 on EOC were confirmed by bioinformatic analyses, luciferase reporter assays, qRT-PCR, and Western blotting.