Qinwei Zhang, Fang Zhang, Yaner Dong, Youchun Ye, Zhongna Yu
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ningbo Yinzhou People’s Hospital, Ningbo, China
Summary
Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the expression of CircMUC16 in human cervical cancer (CCa) tissues and explore the role of CircMUC16 and the AKT3 pathway in the malignant progression of CCa.
Methods: The study analyzed CircMUC16 expression in 52 pairs of CCa samples and adjacent tissues collected from CCa patients at the gynecology department of the hospital using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis. CCa cells with stable CircMUC1 knockdown were constructed using Lentivirus transfection. Changes in the biological functions of CCa cells after CircMUC1 knockdown were assessed using qPCR, Western blot, transwell, and cell wound healing assays. The impact of CircMUC16 inhibition on the AKT3 pathway and CCa metastasis was further explored in vivo using nude mice.
Results: CircMUC16 expression was significantly elevated in CCa tissue specimens compared to adjacent tissues. Inhibition of CircMUC16 significantly reduced the migration and invasiveness of CCa cell lines. In vivo experiments indicated that knocking down CircMUC16 inhibited CCa tumorigenesis in nude mice. Furthermore, inhibition of CircMUC16 led to an increase in the expression of the AKT3 pathway-related protein PTEN and a decrease in AKT3 expression. Co-transfection of CircMUC16 knockdown and AKT3 overexpression vectors reversed the inhibitory effect of single transfection of the CircMUC16 knockdown vector on CCa progression, both in vitro and in vivo.
Conclusions: CircMUC16 is highly upregulated in CCa tissues and may promote CCa invasion and migration by regulating the AKT3 signaling pathway.
Keywords: CircMUC16, AKT3 pathway, cervical cancer, malignant progression.
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