Exosome-mediated circGMPS facilitates the development of gastric cancer cells through miR-144-3p/PUM1.

UNLABELLED: In recent years, gastric cancer (GC) is still one of the major public health burdens in the world. It is reported that exosome circular RNA (circRNA) is involved in the GC progression. However, the function and potential mechanism of circGMPS in GC remains unclear and needs further exploration. In this study, we isolated and identified exosomes from serum by TEM, NTA analysis and Western blot. RNA expression was evaluated by qRT-PCR. Western blot was employed to examine protein expression. Cell proliferation was measured using CCK-8. Transwell assay was adopted to analyze cell migration and invasion. The relationship between genes was explored through bioinformatics analysis, dual-luciferase reporter gene assay and spearman correlation coefficient. We found that circGMPS was elevated in GC exosomes, tissues and cells. Poor prognosis of GC patients was related to high circGMPS expression. Both exosome co-culture with cells and insertion of circGMPS clearly promoted cell progression. Mechanically, circGMPS sponged miR-144-3p to regulate PUM1. Inhibition of PUM1 or miR-144-3p overexpression inhibited the malignant GC cell progression. Our data confirmed that exosome-derived circGMPS boosted malignant progression by miR-144-3p/PUM1 axis in GC cells, providing strong evidences for circGMPS as a clinical biomarker of GC treatment.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10616-023-00597-9.