CircRNA circTRAF3 promotes nasopharyngeal carcinoma metastasis through targeting miR-203a-3p/AKT3 axis.

Distant metastasis is still the main cause of death in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and its mechanism is not fully understood. In this study, we studied the biological function and molecular mechanism of circular RNA circTRAF3 in NPC metastasis. We found that the increase in circTRAF3 is associated with the metastasis and survival of NPC patients. Knockdown of circTRAF3 could inhibit NPC cell proliferation and cell invasion, and induce apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. Further mechanism studies demonstrated that circTRAF3 eliminated the inhibitory effect of miR-203a-3p on AKT3 by adsorbing miR-203a-3p, and finally played the role of oncogene in NPC. Our findings reveal a new type of circRNA, circTRAF3, which acts as an oncogene in NPC and targets miR-203a-3p/AKT3 pathway. The circTRAF3/miR-203a-3p/AKT3 pathway may be a potential therapeutic target for metastatic NPC.