circHIPK3 Acts as Competing Endogenous RNA and Promotes Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Progression through the miR-107BDNF Signaling Pathway

Abstract EN

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) act as a crucial part in many human diseases, particularly in cancers.

circRNA HIPK3 (circHIPK3) is a special circRNA that may participate in the oncogenesis of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), even though its latent regulatory mechanism is not very clear.

Here, we studied the roles of circHIPK3 in NSCLC.

qRT-PCR assay was applied to study the expression of circHIPK3 in NSCLC.

The influence of circHIPK3 on NSCLC was estimated by silencing circHIPK3 and miR-107 mock transfection and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) overexpression, and the correlation between circHIPK3, miR-107, and BDNF was evaluated by dual-luciferase reporter assay.

The results showed that circHIPK3 expression was upregulated in NSCLC cells.

circHIPK3 knockdown inhibited the migration and proliferation of NSCLC cells by promoting the expression of miR-107.

circHIPK3 could be used as a miR-107 sponge to promote BDNF cell proliferation.

The dual-luciferase reporter assay proved that miR-107 was the target of circHIPK3, and miR-107 had an interaction with the 3′untranslated region of BDNF.

miR-107 overexpression inhibited BDNF-mediated NSCLC cell proliferation.

These results indicate that circHIPK3 promotes tumor progression through a new circHIPK3/miR-107/BDNF axis, which offers potential markers and medical treatment for NSCLC.