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Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play prominent roles in regulating the progression of cancers. This study is aimed to decipher the role of hsa_circ_0000730 in cervical cancer (CC).The differentially expressed circRNAs of CC were screened out from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. qRT-PCR was used to detect circ_0000730 expression in CC tissues and cell lines, and the Kaplan-Meier curve was adopted to figure out the relationship between circ_000730 expression and the overall survival time of CC patients. BrdU assay and Tanswell assay were utilized to examine the proliferation, migration, and invasion of CC cells. Western blot was adopted to detect PTEN protein expression. Bioinformatics analysis and dual-luciferase reporter assay were used to examine the target relationship between miR-942-5p and circ_0000730 or PTEN, respectively.Circ_0000730 was among the differentially expressed circRNAs in CC. Circ_0000730 was significantly down-regulated in the cancer tissues of 50 CC patients and CC cell lines. Additionally, underexpression of circ_0000730 was associated with the shorter survival time of CC patients. Gain- and loss-of-function assays highlighted that circ_0000730 significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of CC cells. Mechanistically, miR-942-5p was identified as a downstream target of circ_0000730, and circ_0000730 could positively regulate PTEN expression via repressing miR-942-5p in CC cells.Circ_0000730 inhibits the proliferation, migration, and invasion of CC cells via regulating miR-942-5p/PTEN axis. Circ_0000730 probably acts as a tumor suppressor in CC, and it may be a candidate target for the treatment of CC., (© 2021 The Authors. The Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Kaohsiung Medical University.)

Panax Notoginseng Saponins (PNS) have been well known to have anti-tumor activity and enhance cytotoxicity of some cancer chemotherapy agents, but the mechanisms underlying these effects are still unknown. This study investigates the effect of PNS on cytotoxicity of cisplatin and the relationship between this effect and the modulation of gap junctions (GJ) function by PNS in a transfected cell line. The cytotoxicity of cisplatin (0.25-1 µg/mL) was increased in the presence of GJ. Inhibition of gap junction by either GJ blocker or interception of Connexin (Cx) expression decreased the cytotoxicity of cisplatin. Increasing GJ function enhanced cytotoxicity of cisplatin, only in the cells with functional GJ. PNS (50-200 µg/mL) significantly enhanced cisplatin cytotoxicity, but this effect required functional gap junctions between the cells. Exposure of the cells to PNS (50-200 µg/mL) for 4 h leads to a significant enhance in dye coupling of GJ in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that PNS increases the cytotoxicity of cisplatin through enhancement of GJ activity.

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) and the HPV genotype distribution in invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix in the Mongolian women in Inner Mongolia autonomy region., Methods: The prevalence data of HPV in our department were retrospectively reviewed. INNO-LiPA genotyping technique was used to detect HPV genotypes in the reserved carcinoma tissue specimens., Results: Totally 63 tissue specimens were collected and detected. The prevalence of HPV was 93.7%. The positive rates of HPV among different clinical staging and different pathological grading were not significantly different (P >0.05). The prevalence of HPV16 was not significantly different among different age groups (P>0.05). HPV16 (69.8%), HPV18 (4.8%), HPV31 (4.8%), HPV39 (4.8%), and HPV52 (3.2%) were the 5 dominating HPV genotypes in all cases., Conclusions: HPV infection is closely correlated with invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix in Mongolia women. HPV16 is the most important genotype in invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix, followed by HPV18, 31, and 39. HPV infection dose not affect the progression and differentiation of invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix.