Circular RNA hsa-circ-0006203 - hsa-circ-0004872 as novel detecting biomarkers in oral cancer.

Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common cancer of the head and neck region. The circular RNA (circRNA) is known to serve an important role in the carcinogenesis of different types of cancer. However, the circRNA role of OSCC remains unclear.

Material and methods: OSCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues were obtained to detect circRNAs expression by the next generation sequencing (NGS), and OSCC tissues were selected to verify the differentially significant circRNAs by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). To further investigate the role of hsa-circ-0006203 - hsa-circ-0004872, the primer design and RT-PCR were performed. The expression levels were detected by RT-qPCR.

Results: The NGS results demonstrated that circRNAs were abundantly expressed in OSCC, and two circRNAs were significantly differentially expressed. hsa-circ-0006203 - hsa-circ-0004872 were significantly downregulated in OSCC tissue samples and was statistically correlated with pathological differentiation.

Conclusion: In summary, the results of the present study revealed that OSCC tissues have abundant circRNAs and, to the best of our knowledge, it was our team who firstly explore the regulatory role of the hsa-circ-0006203 - hsa-circ-0004872 network in OSCC. The results indicated that hsa-circ-0006203 - hsa-circ-0004872 may be a potential biomarker for OSCC.