Circ‐MTO1 correlates with favorable prognosis and inhibits cell proliferation, invasion as well as miR‐17‐5p expression in prostate cancer

Abstract

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate circular RNA-mitochondrial tRNA translation optimization 1 (circ-MTO1) expression in tumor tissue and its correlation with clinical characteristics and survival profiles, as well as its effect on cancer cell functions in prostate cancer. METHODS: A total of 298 primary prostate cancer patients were included. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction was conducted to evaluate circ-MTO1 expression in tumor tissue and paired adjacent tissue. Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were recorded. In in vitro experiment, prostate cancer cells were transfected with circ-MTO1 over-expression and negative-control over-expression plasmids. Then cell proliferation, cell invasion and miR-630 as well as miR-17-5p expressions in prostate cancer cells were detected. RESULTS: Circular RNA-mitochondrial tRNA translation optimization 1 expression was downregulated in tumor tissue compared with paired adjacent tissue (P < .001) in patients with prostate cancer. Circ-MTO1 high expression in tumor tissue was correlated with decreased pathological T stage (P = .001) as well as lower pathological N stage (P = .020). As for survival profiles, the DFS (P = .006) and OS (P = .018) were both longer in patients who had circ-MTO1 high expression compared with patients who had circ-MTO1 low expression. In addition, circ-MTO1 high expression independently predicted favorable DFS and OS. Besides, further in vitro experiments illustrated that circ-MTO1 inhibited proliferation (P < .05) and invasion (P < .05) as well as downregulated miR-17-5p expression in prostate cancer cells (P < .05). CONCLUSION: Circ-MTO1 correlates with decreased pathological T/N stage and favorable survival profiles, and it also inhibits cell proliferation, invasion as well as miR-17-5p expression in prostate cancer.