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Research Paper|Volume 13, Issue 14|pp 18978—18992

CircRNA circFOXK2 facilitates oncogenesis in breast cancer via IGF2BP3/miR-370 axis

Wei Zhang1, Hui Liu1, Junjie Jiang1, Yunyun Yang2, Wenjie Wang3, Zhengyan Jia4
  • 1Department of Thyroid and Breast I, Cangzhou Central Hospital, Cangzhou, Hebei Province, China
  • 2Outpatient Comprehensive Treatment, Cangzhou Central Hospital, Cangzhou, Hebei Province, China
  • 3Department of General Surgery, Botou Hospital, Botou, Hebei Province, China
  • 4Department of General Surgery, Qingxian People’s Hospital, Qingxian, Hebei Province, China
Received: April 3, 2021Accepted: June 22, 2021Published: July 30, 2021
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203347

Copyright: © 2021 Zhang 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

Metastasis is the leading cause of breast cancer (BC)-related deaths. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have emerged as essential regulators for cancer progression and metastasis. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the role of circRNAs in BC metastasis and related mechanism. In this study, we established the BC cell line with high or low potential of metastasis. RNA sequencing, migration and invasion assay, Fluorescence in situ hybridization, luciferase report assay, circRNA pulldown, and transmission electron microscopy were performed to elucidate the molecular mechanism. The results showed that circRNA circFOXK2 was significantly increased in BC cells with high metastatic ability, and the upregulation of circFOXK2 was correlated with poor clinicopathological characteristics. Functional experiments demonstrated that overexpression of circFOXK2 promoted migration and invasion of BC cells. Also. circFOXK2 could act with IGF2BP3, an RNA-binding protein, and miR-370 to synergistically promote BC metastasis. Moreover, miR-370 could be transferred through exosomes to enhance the metastatic ability of recipient cells. In conclusion, circFOXK2 functions as a key regulator in BC metastasis, and the role of circFOXK2 on BC metastasis is tightly associated with the involvement of IGF2BP3 and miR-370. CircFOXK2 might serve as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of BC.