Jin Yue, Che Xiaofang, Qu Xiujuan, Li Xin, Lu Wenqing, Wu Jie, Wang Yizhe, Hou Kezuo, Li Ce, Zhang Xiaojie, Zhou Jianping, Liu Yunpeng
Department of Medical Oncology, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
Key Laboratory of Anticancer Drugs and Biotherapy of Liaoning Province, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
Front Oncol. 2020 Aug 13;10:1612. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2020.01612. eCollection 2020.
As a vital feature of the microenvironment, hypoxia, especially long-term hypoxia, is known to promote metastasis and lead to poor prognosis in solid tumors. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) participate in important processes of cell proliferation and metastasis in cancers. However, the contribution of circRNAs to metastasis under long-term hypoxia is obscure. In this study, we aim to explore specific functions of circHIPK3 in long-term hypoxia-promoting metastasis of gastric cancer (GC). The hypoxic resistant gastric cancer (HRGC) cell lines we established previously, which were tolerant to 2% O conditions, were used as the long-term hypoxia model. We found that circHIPK3 was upregulated by HIF-2α in HRGC cells, and circHIPK3 facilitated the migration and invasion ability of HRGC cells. Further investigation proved that circHIPK3 promoted metastasis of HRGC cells directly by interacting with miR-653-5p and miR-338-3p to relieve the suppression of neuropilin 1 (NRP1), resulting in the activation of downstream ERK and AKT pathways. Our study identified oncogene functions of circHIPK3 under a long-term hypoxic microenvironment and the possibility of using circHIPK3 as a potential biomarker of long-term hypoxia in GC. In conclusion, circHIPK3 could promote GC metastasis via the miR-653-5p/miR-338-3p-NRP1 axis under a long-term hypoxic microenvironment.
作为微环境的一个重要特征,缺氧,尤其是长期缺氧,已知会促进实体瘤的转移并导致预后不良。环状RNA(circRNA)参与癌症细胞增殖和转移的重要过程。然而,circRNA在长期缺氧条件下对转移的作用尚不清楚。在本研究中,我们旨在探讨circHIPK3在长期缺氧促进胃癌(GC)转移中的具体功能。我们先前建立的耐缺氧胃癌(HRGC)细胞系,其能够耐受2%氧气条件,被用作长期缺氧模型。我们发现circHIPK3在HRGC细胞中被HIF-2α上调,并且circHIPK3促进了HRGC细胞的迁移和侵袭能力。进一步研究证明,circHIPK3通过与miR-653-5p和miR-338-3p相互作用直接促进HRGC细胞转移,以解除对神经纤毛蛋白1(NRP1)的抑制,从而导致下游ERK和AKT通路的激活。我们的研究确定了circHIPK3在长期缺氧微环境下的癌基因功能以及将circHIPK3用作GC中长期缺氧潜在生物标志物的可能性。总之,在长期缺氧微环境下,circHIPK3可通过miR-653-5p/miR-338-3p-NRP1轴促进GC转移。