Circular RNA circKIF4A facilitates the malignant progression and suppresses ferroptosis by sponging miR-1231 and upregulating GPX4 in papillary thyroid cancer

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are one type of non-coding RNA. They act as important role in regulating various biological processes in the malignant progression. But we don't clearly know the specific mechanism of the majority circRNAs in papillary thyroid tumor progression. In the current study, we explored circKIF4A and the result showed that it had high expression in papillary thyroid cancer. The functions of circKIF4A were explored by CCK-8, transwell, and mouse xenograft experiments. Knockdown of circKIF4A could suppress papillary thyroid cell growth and migration. In addition, RIP assays and dual luciferase vector reporter assays were further conducted. Our consequence showed circKIF4A facilitated the malignant progress of papillary thyroid tumor by sponging miR-1231 and upregulating GPX4 expression. In conclusion, our study proved that circKIF4A-miR-1231-GPX4 axis played a vital role in cancer proliferation and ferroptosis by competing endogenous RNAs. Therefore, targeting circKIF4A is very likely to be a potential method for treatment of papillary thyroid cancer in the future.

Automated summary

The study revealed high expression of circKIF4A in papillary thyroid cancer, and knocking it down could suppress cancer cell growth and migration. CircKIF4A was found to promote tumor progression by regulating miR-1231 and GPX4 expression. Targeting circKIF4A may be a potential method for future treatment of papillary thyroid cancer.