Cell proliferation and invasion is promoted by circSERPINA3 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma by regulating miR-944/MDM2 axis

Growing evidence has demonstrated that in tumor progression, circular RNAs (circRNAs) play important roles. However, the roles of circRNAs in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) have not been fully elucidated. In this study, it was demonstrated that that hsa_circ_0033074 (circSERPINA3) expression was found to be significantly upregulated in NPC tissues and cell lines. CircSERPINA3 inhibition significantly attenuated the invasion and proliferation abilities of NPC cells. The mechanism by which circSERPINA3 interacted with miR-944 was identified and MDM2 was demonstrated to function as a target gene of miR-944. Rescue experiments showed that miR-944 inhibitors or MDM2 overexpression reserved the effects of circSERPINA3 knockdown on NPC progression. Therefore, our study uncovered the circSERPINA3/miR-944/MDM2 axis in NPC, which may be a potential NPC therapeutic target.