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Research Paper|Volume 13, Issue 8|pp 11969—11987

CircRNA hsa_circ_0110102 inhibited macrophage activation and hepatocellular carcinoma progression via miR-580-5p/PPARα/CCL2 pathway

Xinxing Wang1, Wei Sheng2, Tao Xu3, Jiawen Xu4, Ruyi Gao1, Zhenhai Zhang1
  • 1Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, China
  • 2Department of Oncology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, China
  • 3Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, China
  • 4Department of Pathology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, China
* Co-first authors
Received: December 16, 2020Accepted: March 2, 2021Published: April 23, 2021
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.202900

Copyright: © 2021 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

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have critical regulatory roles in tumor biology. However, their contributions in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) still remain enigmatic. The present study aimed to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the involvement of hsa_circ_0110102 in the occurrence and development of HCC. The expression level of hsa_circ_0110102 was significantly downregulated in HCC cell lines and tissues, which was associated with poor prognosis. Knockdown hsa_circ_0110102 significantly promoted cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Moreover, the interaction between hsa_circ_0110102 and miR-580-5p was predicted and verified by luciferase assay and RNA pull-down. The findings indicated that hsa_circ_0110102 functioned as a sponge for miR-580-5p. Moreover, miR-580-5p directly bound to the 3′ UTR of PPARα, which decreased the production and release of C-C chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) in HCC cells. CCL2 could activate the cyclooxygenase-2/prostaglandin E2 (COX-2/PGE2) pathway in macrophage via FoxO1 in a p38 MAPK–dependent manner. Furthermore, the Δ256 mutant of FoxO1 showed no activation effect. These results concluded that hsa_circ_0110102 acted as a sponge for miR-580-5p and inhibited CCL2 secretion into tumor microenvironment by decrease the expression of PPARα in HCC cells, then inhibited the pro-inflammatory cytokine release from macrophages by regulating the COX-2/PGE2 pathway. In conclusion, hsa_circ_0110102 served as a potential prognostic predictor or therapeutic target for HCC.