The potential role of Circular RNA New biomarkers for the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract Introduction/Objective Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer with related deaths worldwide. The non-coding RNAs as the functions of circRNAs in tumor progression have attracted great attention to the clinicopathological characteristics of HCC. Methods/Case Report The present study was conducted to investigate and evaluate the expression level of hsa_circ_2124, and hsa_circ_4018 downstream target gene pathways related to clinico-pathological parameters of HCC. Cell proliferation was examined by West-1 assay and protein expression levels by using western blotting analysis. Results (if a Case Study enter NA) The hsa_circ_2124 expression level was up-regulated in HepG2 and Hep3B cells, respectively compared to normal liver cells. Furthermore, hsa_circ_4018 was down-regulated in two HCC cell lines compared to the normal cell line (LO2 cells), demonstrating the heterogeneity characteristics of the circRNA expressions in different HCC cell lines. Our data showed a significant inhibition of hsa_circ_4018 in HCC cell lines which in turn inhibited cell proliferation and migration. Besides, there is an inhibition in cell proliferation after hsa_circ_2124 knockdown in the tested cell lines. In addition, our data reported that the Knockdown of hsa_circ_2124 reduced the expression of ERK, c-Myc, and β-catenin expression in Hep-G2 cells. Furthermore, hsa_circ_4018 showed significant inhibition in β-catenin and c-Myc expression levels in Hep3B cells compared to the control. The knockdown of hsa_circ_2124 induced G1-phase arrest in HepG2 cells compared to control, suggesting the role of hsa_circ_2124 in the inhibition of HCC progression. Conclusion All in all, our data revealed that hsa_circ_2124 or hsa_circ_4018 plays a role in the regulation of MAPK and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways, which might be potential therapeutic biomarkers for HCC.