CircMTO1 Inhibits Cell Proliferation and Invasion by Regulating Wnt/β-catenin Signaling Pathway in Colorectal Cancer

Objective: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play critical roles in disease incidence. However, the roles of circRNAs in colorectal cancer (CRC) progression remain largely unknown. We explored the expression of circMTO1 in CRC and elucidated the underlying molecular mechanisms.

Patients And Methods: Quantitative Real-time-PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to explore circMTO1 expression in CRC tissues and cell lines. The effect of circMTO1 on the biological function of CRC cells was analyzed by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, Edu assay, colony formation assay, wound-healing assay and transwell invasion assay. Gene expression and signaling pathway were detected by qRT-PCR and Western blot.

Results: QRT-PCR showed that circMTO1 expression was significantly decreased in CRC tissues and cell lines compared with adjacent non-tumor tissues and human normal colon epithelial cell line (FHC), respectively. Patients with low circMTO1 expression were correlated with advanced TNM stage, lymph node metastasis, and poor overall survival. Function assays demonstrated that circMTO1 inhibition promoted CRC cells proliferation and invasion ability in vitro. In addition, we showed that circMTO1 inhibition could promote CRC progression via activating Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

Conclusions: We showed that circMTO1 could act as a tumor suppressor affecting the growth and invasion of CRC cells via regulating Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, providing a novel potential biomarker and therapeutic target for CRC treatment.