Circular RNA hsa_circ_0003204 promotes cervical cancer cell proliferation, migration, and invasion by regulating MAPK pathway

Cervical cancer (CC) is the second most common malignancy in women worldwide. The mechanism underlying CC development remains unclear. Recently, Circular RNAs (circRNAs)have attracted attention because of its role in tumorigenesis. To investigate circRNAsin CC, RNA sequencing was employed to characterize circRNA expression profile between CC tissues and matched adjacent normal tissues. The expression of hsa_circ_0003204 was examined in CC tissues and cell lines by real-time PCR. Migration assay and invasion assay were used to verify the effect of hsa_circ_0003204 on migration and invasion ability in CC cell lines. Tumor formation assay in nude mice was used to analyze the effect of hsa_circ_0003204 on the tumorigenicity of CC cell lines in vitro. Western blotting analyzes were performed to investigate the role of hsa_circ_0003204 in the regulation of MAPK signaling activation. We found that circRNA hsa_circ_0003204 was significantly upregulated in CC tissues. The function and potential molecular mechanisms of hsa_circ_0003204 were also investigated in vitro and in vivo. Hsa_circ_0003204 knockdown reduced cell growth, migration, and invasion but promoted cells apoptosis. However, the over-expression of hsa_circ_0003204 had the opposite effect. The MAPK pathway was different in hsa_circ_0003204 over-expression or down-expression cells, compared to parental cells. In addition, over-expression of hsa_circ_0003204 significantly increased tumor volume and tumor weight in vivo.Taken together, results indicated hsa_circ_0003204 may serve as a potential therapeutic target for patients with CC.