Circular RNA circTRRAP promotes malignant phenotypes of colorectal cancer by sponging miR-194-3p

Abstract

Abstract To explore the mechanism of circTRRAP (hsa_circ_0081311) in regulating the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC). Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was conducted to detect the expression of circTRRAP. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for circTRRAP was produced. In vitro and in vivo experiments of circTRRAP were conducted. Target miRNAs of circTRRAP were analyzed bymiRanda software. Analyses based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database were conducted to screen the target miRNAs. Luciferase reporter assay was conducted to analyze the interaction between circTRRAP and hsa-miR-194-3p (miR-194-3p). In vitro reverse experiments were conducted to analyze the effect of circTRRAP/miR-194-3p axis on CRC.The results suggested that circTRRAP was up-regulated in CRC patients’ tissues and plasma, and associated with unfavorable clinicopathologic features. The area under curve (AUC) of 0.741 suggested that circTRRAP could serve as a potential biomarker for CRC. CircTRRAP promoted the malignant phenotypes of CRC in vitro and in vivo. CircTRRAP could bind to miR-194-3p, which was significantly down-regulated in CRC tissues and associated with overall survival according to TCGA database. CircTRRAP had no effect on the expression level of miR-194-3p, and miR-194-3p up-regulation had the similar tumor-suppressing effects as circTRRAP down-regulation. The tumor-promoting effect of circTRRAP up-regulation could be reversed by the up-regulation of miR-194-3p. Conclusively, circTRRAP was up-regulated in CRC, and associated with unfavorable clinicopathologic features. CircTRRAP could serve as a promising biomarker for CRC diagnosis. CircTRRAP promoted the progression of CRC by sponging miR-194-3p and could serve as a potential therapeutic target for CRC treatment.