Evaluation of the expression of hsa_circ_0006990 in renal cell carcinoma and its relationship with clinicopathological information
Evaluation of the expression of hsa_circ_0006990 in renal cell carcinoma and its relationship with clinicopathological information
Zahra Firoozi,1Elham Mohammadisoleimani,2Mohammad Mehdi Naghizadeh ,3Ali Ariafar ,4Yaser Mansoori ,5,*
1. Department of Medical Genetics, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran. 2. Department of Medical Biotechnology, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran 3. Noncommunicable Diseases Research Center, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran. 4. Urology oncology research center, Shiraz University of medical sciences, Shiraz, Iran 5. Department of Medical Genetics, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran.
Introduction: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the aggressive and highly metastatic type of kidney cancer. Although dysregulation of different genes in RCC development have been reported, the particular molecular mechanism is still unknown. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a novel class of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), are involved in various biological processes in different cancers including RCC. The purpose of this study is to determine the expression of hsa_circ_0006990 in our RCC patients' tumors and adjacent normal tissues, as well as its association with clinicopathological features.
Methods: RNA extraction was done using TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen, USA). According to the manufacturer’s protocol (Fermentas, Cat.No: K1622), the synthesis of cDNA (complementary DNA) was performed and after that, the hsa_circ_0006990 expression was determined using the quantitative real-time PCR in 40 tumor samples and their adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Furthermore, bioinformatics approaches were applied to confirm the roles of this circRNA in RCC.
Results: The expression level of hsa_circ_0006990 decreased in the tumor tissues compared to their adjacent normal tissues. Also, the expression of this circRNA was lower in RCC patients with the tumor size of ≥ 4cm and advanced Fuhrman nuclear grade, that emphasized its tumor suppressive role. Bioinformatics analysis show that hsa_circ_0006990 is a microRNA (miRNA) sponge which could target cell proliferation.
Conclusion: The present study revealed that hsa_circ_0006990 expression is significantly downregulated in RCC tumors, and its lower expression is associated with larger tumor size and higher Fuhrman nuclear grade. Also, hsa_circ_0006990 could play key roles in the pathology of this cancer through potential key regulatory competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) functions. However, more studies are needed to determine the exact mechanism of this ncRNA in RCC pathogenesis.