Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, People's Liberation Army Hospital 960 Ziboyuan District, Zibo, China.
Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2020 Feb;24(3):1219-1225. doi: 10.26355/eurrev_202002_20174.
Currently, the importance of circular RNAs in malignant tumors has attracted much attention. However, the role of circPSMC3 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the function of circPSMC3 in the proliferation and apoptosis of NPC and to explore its possible underlying mechanism.
Real Time-quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) was utilized to determine the level of circPSMC3 in NPC tissues and cell lines. The association between circPSMC3 expression and patients' prognosis was analyzed. CircPSMC3 lentivirus was constructed and transfected into NPC cells. Cell growth ability and apoptosis were detected through Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, colony formation assay, and flow cytometry, respectively. Western blot was performed to analyze the target protein of circPSMC3. Furthermore, the function of circPSMC3 was explored in nude mice.
CircPSMC3 was lowly expressed in NPC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues. Low circPSMC3 expression was associated with poor prognosis of NPC patients. Meanwhile, the expression of circPSMC3 was significantly down-regulated in NPC cell lines as well. The growth ability of NPC cells was markedly inhibited after circPSMC3 was overexpressed. Overexpression of circPSMC3 significantly promoted the apoptosis of NPC cells in vitro. ROCK1 expression decreased markedly via overexpression of circPSMC3. Furthermore, tumor formation was inhibited after the up-regulation of circPSMC3 in vivo.
CircPSMC3 could suppress cell growth and promote cell apoptosis in NPC by downregulating ROCK1.
环状 RNA 在恶性肿瘤中的重要性已引起广泛关注。然而，circPSMC3 在鼻咽癌（NPC）中的作用尚不清楚。本研究旨在探讨 circPSMC3 在 NPC 增殖和凋亡中的作用及其可能的潜在机制。
实时定量聚合酶链反应（RT-qPCR）用于检测 NPC 组织和细胞系中 circPSMC3 的水平。分析 circPSMC3 表达与患者预后的关系。构建 circPSMC3 慢病毒并转染 NPC 细胞。通过细胞计数试剂盒-8（CCK-8）测定、集落形成测定和流式细胞术分别检测细胞生长能力和凋亡。通过 Western blot 分析 circPSMC3 的靶蛋白。进一步在裸鼠中探索 circPSMC3 的功能。
circPSMC3 在 NPC 组织中的表达明显低于相邻正常组织。低 circPSMC3 表达与 NPC 患者的不良预后相关。同时，NPC 细胞系中 circPSMC3 的表达也明显下调。circPSMC3 过表达后，NPC 细胞的生长能力明显受到抑制。circPSMC3 过表达可显著促进 NPC 细胞的体外凋亡。ROCK1 的表达通过 circPSMC3 的过表达而明显降低。此外，体内 circPSMC3 的上调抑制了肿瘤的形成。
circPSMC3 通过下调 ROCK1 抑制 NPC 细胞的生长并促进细胞凋亡。
