Circular RNA 0001789 sponges miR-140-3p and regulates PAK2 to promote the progression of gastric cancer

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer (GC) is the third-leading cause of cancer-associated mortalities globally. The deregulation of circular RNAs (circRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) is widely implicated in the pathogenesis and progression of different cancer types. METHODS: The expression profiling of circRNAs in GC is required to identify crucial circRNAs as biomarkers or therapeutic targets. In the present study, a published circRNA microarray dataset was used to identify differentially expressed circRNAs between GC tissues and normal gastric mucosa tissues. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR was performed to validate the expression of circ_0001789. Fisher’s exact test, receiver operating characteristic curve and Kaplan-Meier plots were employed to analyze the clinical significance of circ_0001789. The miRNA targets of circ_0001789 were predicted using an online database, and their functional interaction was further confirmed by RNA pull-down, RNA immunoprecipitation and dual luciferase reporter assays. Transwell assays were conducted to investigate the biological functions of circ_0001789, miR-140-3p and p21 activated kinase 2 (PAK2) in the migration and invasion of GC cells. A xenograft mouse model was established to validate the role of circ_0001789 in the tumorigenesis of GC cells. RESULTS: circ_0001789 was identified as a highly expressed circRNA in GC tissues versus normal gastric mucosa tissues. Silencing circ_0001789 attenuated the malignancy of GC cells, and exosomal circ_0001789 was sufficient to regulate the malignant phenotype of GC cells. miR-140-3p was further identified as a downstream target of circ_0001789, which showed a negative correlation with circ_0001789 expression in GC tissues. Overexpression of miR-140-3p suppressed cell migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition in GC cells. PAK2 was identified as the target of miR-140-3 to mediate the malignant phenotype of GC cells. CONCLUSION: The present data suggested that the upregulation of circ_0001789 was associated with the progression of GC and with poor prognosis in patients with GC, and that miR-140-3p/PAK2 served as the downstream axis to mediate the oncogenic effect of circ_0001789. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12967-022-03853-2.