Circ-TTC17 Promotes Proliferation and Migration of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

  • Dig Dis Sci. 2019 Mar;64(3):751-758. doi: 10.1007/s10620-018-5382-z.
Qian Wang  1 ,  Qian Zhang  1  2 ,  Handong Sun  1 ,  Weiwei Tang  3 ,  Lili Yang  4 ,  Zhipeng Xu  2 ,  Zhihua Liu  5 ,  Hui Jin  6  7  8 ,  Xiufeng Cao  9  10
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Oncology Surgery, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
  • 2. Department of Oncology Surgery, Nanjing SIR RUN RUN Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
  • 3. Department of General Surgery, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
  • 4. Department of Oncology, Second Hospital of Nanjing, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
  • 5. State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, National Cancer Center/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
  • 6. Department of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Jiangsu Province Hospital, Nanjing, China. [email protected].
  • 7. Key Laboratory of Hematology of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China. [email protected].
  • 8. Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Personalized Medicine, Nanjing, China. [email protected].
  • 9. Department of Oncology Surgery, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China. [email protected].
  • 10. Department of Thoracic Surgery, Taikang Xianlin Drum Tower Hospital, School of Medicine, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. [email protected].
PMID: 30519852 DOI: 10.1007/s10620-018-5382-z
Abstract

Background: Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a special class of noncoding RNAs with the characteristic of covalent closed-loop structure, have been widely found in various organisms. Growing evidence has shown that circRNAs play a crucial role in regulating biological functions of cancers. However, the specific role of circRNAs in esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (ESCC) remains largely unknown.

Aim: The present study aims to investigate the effects of circ-TTC17 in ESCC clinical samples as well as cells.

Methods: Sanger Sequencing and Agarose gel electrophoresis were used to verify the specificity of circ-TTC17. Expression levels of circ-TTC17 in ESCC cells, plasma, and tissues were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. A colony formation experiment, CCK-8 assay, and wound-healing assay were applied to detect the functions of circ-TTC17 in KYSE30 and KYSE450 cells. A nucleus-cytoplasm fractionation experiment was used to probe the location of circ-TTC17 in ESCC cells. Finally, a network of circ-TTC17 with its targeted miRNAs interactions and corresponding mRNAs was analyzed and framed by bioinformatics.

Results: The expression level of circ-TTC17 was found to be significantly higher in ESCC cells, plasma, and tissues compared with normal cases. In vitro experiments indicated that circ-TTC17 promoted proliferation and migration of ESCC cells. Bioinformatics predictions showed that circ-TTC17 might regulate progress of ESCC by acting as a Sponge for MicroRNAs (miRNAs).

Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrate that upregulated circ-TTC17 plays a key role in promoting proliferation and migration of ESCC cells and has potential to become a novel biomarker for diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of ESCC in the future.

Keywords
Circ-TTC17; ESCC; Migration; Proliferation; Upregulation; miRNA.
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