Increasing findings suggest the critical role of circular RNA (circRNA) in human cancer, and chemotherapy resistance is a poor prognostic factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The function of circRNA in the HCC oxaliplatin (OXA) resistance remains largely unknown. In this study, we found that circRNA circFBXO11 was significantly up-regulated in HCC tissues, and the circFBXO11 overexpression was associated with poor prognosis. CircFBXO11 was found to promote the HCC proliferation, cycle progress and OXA resistance. Mechanistically, circFBXO11 was predominantly localized in the cytoplasm and harboured the miR-605, thereby targeting FOXO3 protein. Furthermore, FOXO3 targeted the promoter region of ABCB1 to accelerate its expression. In conclusion, this research reveals the role of circFBXO11/miR-605/FOXO3/ABCB1 axis in the HCC OXA resistance, providing new insight for circRNA-based diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
Keywords: ABCB1; FOXO3; circular RNA; hepatocellular carcinoma; oxaliplatin resistance.
© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine published by Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.