Hsa_circ_0003829 serves as a potential diagnostic predictor for oral squamous cell carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: Increasing evidence suggests that circular RNAs (circRNAs) play a major role in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. This study aimed to identify aberrant expression of hsa_circ_0003829 in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and to explore its clinical significance. METHODS: We conducted a prospective clinical study to examine the expression pattern of hsa_circ_0003829 in 60 paired OSCC and normal clinical samples and in cell lines using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. We also evaluated the diagnostic value of hsa_circ_0003829 in OSCC based on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, and examined the relationships between hsa_circ_0003829 expression and clinicopathological features in patients with OSCC. We further used bioinformatics software CircInteractome (https: //Circinteractome.nia.nih.gov/) to predict circRNA–microRNA interactions. RESULTS: Hsa_circ_0003829 was significantly downregulated in OSCC compared with adjacent normal tissues. The area under the ROC curve was 0.81. Low expression levels of hsa_circ_0003829 in OSCC tissues were negatively correlated with lymph node metastasis status and TNM stage. CONCLUSIONS: Downregulated expression of has_circ_0003829 suggests that this may be a key circRNA in OSCC, and may serve as a prospective biomarker for the diagnosis of OSCC.