Circular RNA circIL21R promotes cervical cancer cells proliferation and migration by sponging the miR-1205/PTBP1 axis.

Increasing research has shown that the abnormal expression of circRNAs is closely related to tumorigenesis, apoptosis, and patient prognosis in cervical cancer. This study aimed to reveal the procancer role of circIL21R in cervical cancer and investigate its related molecular mechanisms. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that circIL21R promotes the progression of cervical cancer via the miR-1205/PTBP1 axis. CircIL21R expression was significantly greater in tumor tissue than in adjacent normal tissue, and higher circIL21R expression indicated shorter survival. We applied MTS assays, EdU assays, and Transwell assays to show that the overexpression of circIL21R promoted cervical cancer cell proliferation and invasion. Mechanistically, circIL21R promoted the expression of PTBP1 by sponging miR-1205. Moreover, rescue assays confirmed that regulating the expression of miR-1205 or PTBP1 could reverse the tumorigenic effect caused by circIL21R overexpression. In addition, circIL21R promoted the tumorigenesis of cervical cancer in vivo. In summary, our study demonstrated that circIL21R was highly expressed in cervical cancer and upregulated PTBP1 expression by acting as a ceRNA for miR-1205, making outstanding contributions to several malignant biological processes in cervical cancers, such as growth, proliferation, and invasion. CircIL21R is a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer.

Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma in Patients with Acromegaly from a Single Center in China.

OBJECTIVES: An increased risk of thyroid cancers in patients with acromegaly has been addressed by numerous studies. However, the differences between patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) with and without acromegaly remain to be clarified. We compared the clinical-pathologic data and genetic alterations of PTC between the 2 groups. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Four patients with PTC and acromegaly and 32 age-matched patients with PTC without acromegaly were retrieved retrospectively from the hospital recordings. Mutational analysis was determined by direct sequencing. Insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor and insulin Rß expression were analyzed by immunohistochemistry in acromegaly group. RESULTS: The prevalence of multifocality involved in bilateral lobes in the acromegaly group was significantly increased (P = 0.017). The presence of bilateral lymph node metastasis showed the increasing trend even though without a significant difference because of the limited number of PTC patients in acromegaly group (P = 0.053). There was no significant difference in other factors, such as sex, tumor size in maximum diameter, lymph node metastasis, extrathyroidal extension, and TNM stage. Two (50%) PTCs in acromegalic group and 25 (78.12%) PTCs in the nonacromegalic group were detected to harbor BRAF600E mutation, and no patient was identified to have NRAS codon 61, KRAS codon 61/12/13 mutation. Insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor and insulin Rß immunostaining showed low positive to positive in PTC cells and negative in adjacent normal tissues in patients with acromegaly. CONCLUSIONS: Multifocality involved in 2 lobes is more common in patients with PTC and acromegaly, which shows more aggressive behaviors. BRAF mutation is not uncommon in patients with PTC and acromegaly.