Microarray profile of circular RNAs identifies hsa_circ_0014130 as a new circular RNA biomarker in non-small cell lung cancer

Accumulating evidence has revealed that aberrant Circular RNAs (circRNAs) expression plays important roles in carcinogenesis and tumor progression. However, their role in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains unclear. In this study, we first used circRNA microarrays to screen for tumour-specific circRNA candidates in between NSCLC (n = 3) and adjacent lung (n = 3) tissue. Among the circRNA expression profile, two circRNAs (hsa_circ_0014130 and hsa_circ_0016760) were selected for validation in ten pairs of NSCLC and adjacent non-cancerous tissues by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Only hsa_circ_0014130 exhibited significantly overexpressed in NSCLC tissues (P < 0.001), which were further confirmed in another 36 matched tissue samples using qRT-PCR. Hsa_circ_0014130 expression significantly correlated with TNM stage (P = 0.001) and lymphatic metastasis (P = 0.004). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.878 (95% confidence interval = 0.804–0.951; P < 0.001), which showed good diagnostic potential. Bioinformatics platforms predicted that hsa_circ_0014130 might interact with five miRNAs and their corresponding mRNAs. Gene oncology analysis and pathway analysis revealed that hsa_circ_0014130 could participate in NSCLC development. In summary, our findings indicated that hsa_circ_0014130 could be used as a potential NSCLC biomarker and might be closely related to the carcinogenesis of NSCLC.