Circular RNA-DPP4 serves an oncogenic role in prostate cancer progression through regulating miR-195/cyclin D1 axis

BACKGROUND: Recently, more and more studies have highlighted the critical regulatory roles of circular RNAs (circRNAs), a class of non-coding RNAs, in the progression of many human cancers, including prostate cancer (PCa). circRNA microarray analysis was performed to identify circRNAs that are differentially expressed in PCa tissues. METHODS: 104 pairs of PCa tissues and matched adjacent normal prostate tissues (at least 2 cm distal to the tumor margin) were obtained. circRNA microarray analysis was performed on four pairs of PCa tissues and matched adjacent normal prostate tissues to investigate the potential involvement of circRNAs in PCa. Flow cytometric analysis was performed to investigate whether the effect of circDPP4 on PCa cell proliferation was associated with the alteration in cell cycle progression. The role of circDPP4 in PCa tumor growth was further explored in vivo. RESULTS: We found that circDPP4 was overexpressed in PCa tissues and cell lines, and its expression was closely associated with Gleason score and clinical stage of PCa patients. In vitro loss- and gain-of-function experiments demonstrated that circDPP4 knockdown inhibited, whereas circDPP4 overexpression promoted the proliferation, migration, invasion and cell cycle progression of PCa cells. Knockdown of circDPP4 also suppressed PCa tumor growth in vivo. We further found that circDPP4 functioned as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) for miR-195 in PCa cells, and miR-195 negatively regulated the expression of oncogenic cyclin D1. Rescue experiments suggested that restoration of miR-195 blocked the oncogenic role of circDPP4 in PCa cells. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our findings revealed a novel regulatory mechanism between circDPP4 and miR-195/cyclin D1 axis, and offered novel strategies for the treatment of PCa. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12935-021-02062-z.