Liu Chong, Han Tao, Shi Yue
Department of Breast Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
Gland Surg. 2020 Dec;9(6):2044-2053. doi: 10.21037/gs-20-825.
Breast cancer is one of the most significant causes of death in women around the world. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), which are a novel class of conserved RNA molecules, are involved in the occurrence and development of various diseases, especially malignancies; however, researchers rarely report their roles in human breast cancer.
In the present study, the differentially expressed levels of circRNAs in human breast cancer tissues and paired noncancerous tissues were screened by circRNA microarray. Hsa_circ_0043278 was downregulated 43-fold in breast cancer and was selected for further analysis. The expression of hsa_circ_0043278 was verified in breast cancer specimens and paired noncancerous tissues by quantitative reverse transcription polymerized chain reaction (qRT-PCR) technique. The relationship between the expression of hsa_circ_0043278 and the clinicopathological features was analyzed.
Among the 520 differentially expressed circRNAs, 292 significantly upregulated circRNAs and 228 downregulated circRNAs in the breast cancer tissues compared with the paired noncancerous tissues. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of hsa_circ_0043278 was 0.690. The results of the bioinformatics prediction showed five target miRNAs that might be sponged by hsa_circ_0043278. The expression of hsa_circ_0043278 was associated with lymph node metastasis and histological type of the patient. Patients with lymph node metastasis have tumors with significantly downregulated expression of hsa_circ_0043278 (P=0.0201).
Our results suggest that hsa_circ_0043278 is downregulated and may play a key role in human breast cancer.
乳腺癌是全球女性死亡的主要原因之一。环状RNA（circRNA）是一类新型的保守RNA分子，参与多种疾病尤其是恶性肿瘤的发生发展；然而，研究人员很少报道其在人类乳腺癌中的作用。
在本研究中，通过circRNA微阵列筛选人乳腺癌组织和配对的癌旁组织中circRNA的差异表达水平。hsa_circ_0043278在乳腺癌中下调了43倍，并被选作进一步分析。采用定量逆转录聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）技术在乳腺癌标本和配对的癌旁组织中验证hsa_circ_0043278的表达。分析hsa_circ_0043278的表达与临床病理特征之间的关系。
与配对的癌旁组织相比，在520个差异表达的circRNA中，乳腺癌组织中有292个circRNA显著上调，228个circRNA下调。hsa_circ_0043278的受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线下面积为0.690。生物信息学预测结果显示有5个靶标miRNA可能被hsa_circ_0043278吸附。hsa_circ_0043278的表达与患者的淋巴结转移和组织学类型有关。有淋巴结转移的患者肿瘤中hsa_circ_0043278的表达显著下调（P = 0.0201）。
我们的结果表明，hsa_circ_0043278表达下调，可能在人类乳腺癌中起关键作用。
