Circnrip1 Modulates the Mir-515-5P/IL-25 Axis to Control 5-Fu and Cisplatin Resistance in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
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Drug Design, Development and Therapy Dovepress open access to scientific and medical research Open Access Full Text Article ORIGINAL RESEARCH CircNRIP1 Modulates the miR-515-5p/IL-25 Axis to Control 5-Fu and Cisplatin Resistance in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma This article was published in the following Dove Press journal: Drug Design, Development and Therapy Junwu Lin1,* Background: The development of drug resistance leads many NPC patients to experience Hong Qin2,* disease relapse following the completion of chemotherapy. It is thus essential that the Yue Han3 mechanistic basis for such chemoresistance be clarified in an effort to identify approaches Xinghua Li4 to sensitizing NPC tumors to treatment with cisplatin and related agents. YuJuan Zhao5 Methods: A qRT-PCR approach was used to measure the expression of circNRIP1 in NPC, while luciferase assays were used to identify interactions with downstream targets of Guangsheng Zhai 6 circNRIP1 activity including miR-515-5p and IL-25. CCK8 assays were also utilized to 1Department of Otolaryngology, Central detect IC50 values for cisplatin and 5-Fu. Hospital, Qingdao, Shandong, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Results: The expression of circNRIP1 was significantly increased in the serum of chemore Otolaryngology, Women and Children’s sistant NPC patients. At a functional level, we determined that circNRIP1 is able to sequester Hospital, Qingdao, Shandong, People’s miR-515-5p, thereby inhibiting its ability to post-transcriptionally suppress IL-25 expression. Republic of China; 3Department of Urology, Zhangqiu District People’s We observed a significant negative correlation between the expression of miR-515-5p and Hospital, Jinan, Shandong, People’s circNRIP1 in serum samples from chemoresistant NPC patients, consistent with a functional 4 Republic of China; Department of interaction between these two factors. We further found that 5-Fu and CDDP IC50 values in Critical Care Medicine, Zhangqiu District People’s Hospital, Jinan, Shandong, NPC cells in which circNRIP1 had been knocked down were restored following miR-515-5p People’s Republic of China; 5Department inhibitor transfection. Similarly, changes in these IC50 values were reversed in NPC cells of Otolaryngology, Rizhao Second People’s Hospital, Rizhao, Shandong, transfected with miR-515-5p mimics following the overexpression of IL-25 in these same cells. People’s Republic of China; 6Department Conclusion: These data highlight the circNRIP1/miR-515-5p/IL-25 as a novel regulator of of Radiotherapy, Zibo Central Hospital, 5-Fu and cisplatin resistance in NPC, suggesting that this pathway may be amenable to Zibo, Shandong, People’s Republic of China therapeutic targeting as an approach to treating this cancer type. Keywords: circNRIP1, 5-Fu resistance, cisplatin resistance, NPC, miR-515-5p, IL-25 *These authors contributed equally to this work Introduction Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is among the most common and deadliest forms of head and neck cancer globally,1,2 and while many improvements in the surgical and neoadjuvant chemotherapy-based treatment of this disease have been made in recent years, NPC patients have a poor prognosis with a 5-year survival rate of 50–70%.3,4 Cisplatin (CDDP) is currently the first-line treatment extended to NPC patients, but the development of cisplatin resistance and consequent tumor recur Correspondence: Guangsheng Zhai Department of Radiotherapy, Zibo rence is common. It is thus essential that the mechanistic basis for cisplatin Central Hospital, No. 54, Communist resistance in NPC tumors be better clarified in order to establish how best to Youth League West Road, Zhangdian District, Zibo 255036, Shandong, People’s sensitize these tumors to chemotherapeutic intervention. Republic of China Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are highly stable RNAs that form closed covalent Fax +86-18678186986 5–9 Email [email protected] loops without any 5ʹ-cap or 3ʹ-poly-A tail. The expression of circRNAs is evident in submit your manuscript | www.dovepress.com Drug Design, Development and Therapy 2021:15 323–330 323 DovePress © 2021 Lin et al. This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php http://doi.org/10.2147/DDDT.S292180 and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms (https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php). Lin et al Dovepress many different cancer cell types including gastric cancer,10 CNE-1/CDDP) was established by treating HK-1 and colorectal cancer,11 lung adenocarcinoma,12 breast cancer,13 CNE-1 with gradient increased CDDP for 6 months. oral squamous cell carcinoma,14 hepatocellular carcinoma15 and NPC16 cells. Importantly, these circRNAs can strongly qRT-PCR influence tumor cell function and differentiation by seques Trizol (Invitrogen) was used to isolate total RNA from cells, tering microRNAs (miRNAs) in a sequence-specific manner after which a PrimeScript RT reagent kit (Takara Bio, Shiga, and thereby altering their regulatory activity.13 Japan) was used to prepare cDNA. Next, qRT-PCR reactions CircNRIP1 (hsa_circ_0004771) is a circRNA derived were conducted with a 7500 Real-time PCR System (Applied from the NRIP1 locus (chr21:16,386,664–16,415,895). Biosystems, CA, USA) and a SYBR Green PCR Kit (Takara). Multiple studies have identified circNRIP1 as a driver of The 2−ΔΔCt method was used to assess relative gene expres tumor progression. In breast cancer cells, silencing this sion, and the following primers were used for this study: circRNA inhibits tumor cell proliferation and promotes hsa_circ_0004771: forward 5′-TCCGGATGACATCAGAGC apoptotic cell death owing to consequent increases in TAC-3′ and reverse 5′-TCAAGTGTGCATCTTCTGGCT-3′; miR-653 activity and resultant suppression of the ZEB2 GAPDH: forward 5′-GCACCGTCAAGCTGAGAAC-3′ and signaling pathway.17 In cervical cancer, circNRIP1 has reverse 5′-TGGTGAAGACGCCAGTGGA-3′. similarly been shown to sequester miR-629-3p and to thereby modulate the PTP4A1/ERK/1/2 pathway in order CCK8 Assay to promote tumor invasion and migration.18 Through com Half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values parable mechanisms, this circRNA also binds and seques for 5-FU and cisplatin were assessed via Cell ters miR-149-5p in gastric cancer cells and thereby Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8, Dojindo, Japan) based on pro promotes tumor progression via the AKT1/mTOR vided directions, with absorbance values at 450 nm pathway.19 The specific functional relevance of being analyzed with a SpectraMax 250 instrument circNRIP1 as a regulator of cisplatin resistance, however, (Molecular Devices, USA). has yet to be defined. Herein, we determined that the expression of Luciferase Reporter Assay circNRIP1 was significantly elevated in the serum of cis The starBase 3.0 was used for the prediction of the binding platin-resistant NPC patients, and we found that sites between CircNRIP1 or IL-25 and miR-515-5p. circNRIP1 downregulation was sufficient to reduce NPC Subsequently, the sequence of wild type (WT) or mutant cell resistance to cisplatin at least in part via modulating (MUT) CircNRIP1 or the 3ʹUntranslated Region (UTR) the miR-515-5p/IL-25 axis. fragment of IL-25 harboring miR-515-5p binding sites was amplifiedand inserted into pGL3-control vector (Promega) Materials and Methods for the construction of the luciferase reporters. WT or mutant luciferase reporter assay constructs were trans Ethical Approval fected into NPC cells using Lipofectamine 3000, together Samples of NPC patient serum were obtained from Zibo with miR-149 mimic constructs as appropriate. A Dual Central Hospital. The Ethics Committee of Zibo Central Luciferase Reporter System Kit (E1910, Promega, USA) Hospital approved the present study, and all patients pro was then used based on provided directions to analyze vided written informed consent to participate. The research luciferase activity. was performed in accordance with the Declaration Helsinki principles. ELISA Levels of IL-25 were analyzed with an ELISA kit (Abcam, Cell Culture MA, USA) based on provided directions. HK-1 (from the China Center for Type Culture Collection, Wuhan, China) and CNE-1 (from the Chinese Academy of Statistics Sciences, Shanghai, China) cells were grown in RPMI- All experiments were repeated in triplicate, and data are 1640 (Gibco) containing 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) at given as means ± standard deviation. Data were compared 37°C in a humidified 5% CO2 incubator. The cisplatin- via Student’s t-tests or ANOVAs, with P<0.05 as the sig resistant HK-1 and CNE-1 cell line (HK-1/CDDP and nificance threshold. 324 submit your manuscript | www.dovepress.com Drug Design, Dev elopment and Therapy 2021:15 DovePress Dovepress Lin et al Results CircNRIP1 Functions by Sequestering Chemoresistant NPC Patients Exhibit miR-515-5p Elevated Serum circNRIP1 Levels In order to understand the mechanisms whereby In this study, NPC patients that had undergone four cycles circNRIP1 controls NPC cell chemoresistance, we next of combined 5-Fu/cisplatin treatment were classified into leveraged the CircNet, RNA22, and RegRNA tools to either chemoresistant (n=72) or chemosensitive (n=66) identify miRNAs capable of binding to this circRNA, groups based upon the Huvos scoring system.20 Prior to leading to the identification of miR-515-5p as treatment, serum circNRIP1 levels were comparable a circNRIP1 target miRNA (Figure 3A). Luciferase repor between these two patient groups, whereas after treatment ter assays confirmed this regulatory relationship, as miR- the expression of this circNRIP1 was significantly elevated 515-5p mimic transfection was sufficient to reduce the in serum samples from chemoresistant patients relative to activity of WT but not mutant (MUT) luciferase reporter those from chemosensitive patients (Figure 1A).