CircRNA Circ-ITCH Inhibits the Proliferation and Invasion of Glioma Cells Through Targeting the miR-106a-5p/SASH1 Axis

Circ-ITCH, a novel circRNA, was generated from several exons of itchy E3 ubiquitin protein ligase (ITCH). Recently, circ-ITCH has been demonstrated to be involved in cancer development. However, there have been few investigations on the specific role of circ-ITCH in glioma. In this study, we performed quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis and identified that circ-ITCH was significantly downregulated in glioma tissues and cell lines. The function assays showed that upregulation of circ-ITCH inhibited glioma cell proliferation and invasion in vitro as well as reduced cell growth in vivo. Moreover, miR-106a-5p was found serving as a target of circ-ITCH and miR-106a-5p mimics could reverse the inhibitory effect of circ-ITCH on glioma cell proliferation and invasion. We also revealed that circ-ITCH increased SASH1 expression by sponging miR-106a-5p in glioma cells. In addition, SASH1 downregulation could abrogate the suppressive effect of circ-ITCH on glioma progression. Taken together, our results suggested that circ-ITCH could suppress glioma cell proliferation and invasion via regulating the miR-106a-5p/SASH1 axis, elucidating a novel molecular target for glioma treatment.

Automated summary

In this study, it was shown that circ-ITCH is significantly downregulated in glioma and can inhibit cell proliferation and invasion by regulating the miR-106a-5p/SASH1 axis, providing a new molecular target for glioma treatment.