Identification of a CircRNA-miRNA-mRNA Network and Integrated Analysis of Immune Infiltration in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a highly invasive type of head and neck cancer. Circular RNA (circRNA) acts as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) and involves in pathogenesis of many diseases. However, the circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network and relationship between ceRNA and immune infiltration in OSCC remain unknown. In this study, we established a ceRNA network, including 89 circRNAs, 43 miRNAs and 223 mRNAs, and found that 233 genes are mainly related to malignant signalling pathways (including "Integrin family cell surface interactions" and "Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition" pathways) and five potential biomarkers (SLC20A1, PITX2, hsa-mir-135b, hsa-mir-377 and hsa-let-7c). Meanwhile, we established a prognostic model based on clinical risk, and revealed the relationship between immune infiltrating cells and biomarkers in OSCC. Taken together, our study is helpful to reveal the pathogenesis of oral squamous cell carcinoma.