Long noncoding RNA ROR1-AS1 enhances STC2-mediated cell growth and autophagy in cervical cancer through miR-670-3p.

PURPOSE: Cervical cancer (CC) ranks the fourth among female malignancies and has become a dominating cause for tumor-associated death nowadays. More and more documents have proposed that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), which emerge as pivotal biomarkers, actively participate in the regulation of human carcinomas. LncRNA ROR1-AS1 is a recently identified RNA that is highlighted for its crucial role in the biological processes of cancers. However, the role and molecular mechanism of ROR1-AS1 in CC have not been clarified yet. METHODS AND RESULTS: In the current study, RT-qPCR analysis uncovered that ROR1-AS1 expression was evidently upregulated in CC tissues and cell lines. Functional experiments (CCK-8, EdU, TUNEL, wound healing and Transwell assays as well as western blot analysis) revealed that knockdown of ROR1-AS1 markedly suppressed the malignant phenotypes of CC cells via decreasing cell viability, proliferation, migration, invasion and autography, and facilitating cell apoptosis. Subsequently, by performing luciferase reporter and RNA pulldown assays, miR-670-3p was identified to be sponged by ROR1-AS1. Additionally, STC2 was disclosed to be targeted by miR-670-3p in CC cells. Rescue assays illuminated that upregulation of STC2 counteracted ROR1-AS1 knockdown-induced suppression on CC cell growth. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggested that ROR1-AS1 contributed to the malignant properties of CC cells through sponging miR-670-3p and upregulating of STC2.

CircAMOTL1 Promotes Tumorigenesis Through miR-526b/SIK2 Axis in Cervical Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is one of the most common malignancies in women, leading to major health problems for its high morbidity and mortality. Numerous studies have demonstrated that circular RNAs (circRNAs) could be participated in the progression of multifarious diseases, especially plentiful carcinomas. CircAMOTL1 (angiomotin-like1, ID: hsa_circ_0004214), which is located on human chromosome 11:9 4532555-94533477, is involved in the occurrence of breast cancer, etc. However, the intrinsic and concrete molecular mechanism of circAMOTL1 in cervical carcinomas remained thoroughly unclear, which was also the bottleneck of circRNAs studies in cancer. METHODS: The relative expression levels of circAMOTL1 and miR-526b in cervical carcinoma patients' specimens and cervical carcinoma cell lines were detected by RT-qPCR. Through experiments including loss-function and overexpression, the biological effects of circAMOTL1 and miR-526b on the proliferation, migration, apoptosis, and tumorigenicity were explored in cervical carcinomas. Dual luciferase reporter gene analysis, western blot, and other methods were adopted to explore the circAMOTL1 potential mechanism in cervical carcinomas. RESULTS: In our experiments, our researches displayed that circAMOTL1 was significantly higher expression in cervical carcinomas specimens and cell lines. Further experiments illustrated that the knockdown of circAMOTL1 could restrain the malignant phenotype, AKT signaling, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of in cervical carcinomas cells. Meanwhile miR-526b was downregulated in cervical carcinomas and even miR-526b could partially reverse circAMOTL1 function in malignant cervical tumor cells. CircAMOTL1 acts as a microRNA (miRNA) sponge that actively regulates the expression of salt-inducible kinase 2 (SIK2) to sponge miR-526b and subsequently increases malignant phenotypes of cervical carcinomas cells. In a word, circAMOTL1 acts a carcinogenic role and miR-526b serves as the opposite function of antioncogene in the cervical carcinoma pathogenesis. CONCLUSION: CircAMOTL1-miR-526b-SIK2 axis referred to the malignant progression and development of cervical carcinomas. CircAMOTL1 expression was inversely correlated with miR-526b and positively correlated with SIK2 mRNA in cervical cancer tissues. Thus, circAMOTL1 exerted an oncogenic role in cervical cancer progression through sponging miR-526b. Taken together, our study revealed that circAMOTL1 acted as an oncogene and probably was a potential therapeutic target for the cervical cancer.

Association of hemorrhage at termination in caesarean scar pregnancy using the crossover sign of ultrasound image.

PURPOSE: To analyze whether crossover sign (COS) can help predict the risk of bleeding during surgical evacuation in patients with caesarean scar pregnancy (CSP). METHODS: This study retrospectively analyzed the clinical presentations, ultrasound images and treatment outcomes of patients with CSP. The relationship among the gestational sac, caesarean scar and the anterior uterine wall, defined as the COS, was analyzed to predict the risk of severe bleeding during surgical evacuation in these patients. All patients were categorized according to the relationship between the endometrial line and the superior-inferior diameter of the gestational sac into crossover sign-1 and crossover sign-2 groups. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the data with non-normal distribution, and logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the correlates of severe bleeding. RESULTS: A total of 74 patients were included. In COS-1 group (n = 21), 16 (76.19%) patients suffered heavy bleeding(≥200 mL) during surgical evacuation, while COS-2 group (n = 53) had only 1(11.89%) patient complaint of heavy bleeding (≥200 mL) (P < 0.01). Adverse surgical outcomes were more common in women with COS-1. Logistic regression analysis showed that COS-1 (OR, 7.93; 95% CI, 1.35-46.67) was independently associated with severe bleeding. CONCLUSION: COS can help predict who has a higher risk of severe hemorrhage in patients with CSP and guide the clinical treatment selection for optimal management of this condition.