Fucoidan affects oral squamous cell carcinoma cell functions in vitro by regulating FLNA‐derived circular RNA
Authors: Keqian Zhi
Xianqin Song
Shaoming Li
Nanyang Zhang
Demeng Zhang
Chenyang Zhao
Ling Gao
Wenhao Ren
Journal: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (2020)
Discipline: Multidisciplinary
Keywords: apoptosis; cell growth; circular RNA FLNA; fucoidan; metastasis
Affiliations: Key Laboratory of Oral Clinical Medicine, the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, China., Medical Research Center, the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, China., Department of Implantology, the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, China., Department of Oral Maxillofacial Surgery, the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, China., State Key Laboratory of Bioactive Seaweed Substances, Qingdao Brightmoon Seaweed Group Co Ltd, Qingdao, Shandong, China.

Abstract:  Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most common cancer types, with a high annual incidence. Although chemotherapy contributes to suppressing OSCC tumorigenesis, the available treatments result in poor prognosis because of local recurrence and regional lymph node metastasis. Thus, it is necessary to discover novel and safe drugs with greater effectiveness and fewer side effects. Fucoidan is a component of the cell wall of brown seaweed that has been shown to produce a wide range of biological activities. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of fucoidan in treating OSCC. In in vitro studies, we found that fucoidan inhibited OSCC growth and suppressed migration and invasion of OSCC cells. In addition, the potential interaction between fucoidan and filamin A (FLNA)-derived circular RNA (circFLNA) was predicted using bioinformatics databases and then confirmed in OSCC samples and cell lines. Indeed, fucoidan increased the expression of circFLNA in OSCC cell lines. Furthermore, both fucoidan and circFLNA could mediate the expression of key proteins related to cell growth, apoptosis, migration, and invasion. In conclusion, our research demonstrated that fucoidan might be considered as a potential natural drug in the treatment of OSCC patients by targeting circFLNA. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 In Figure 4A and C, a Western immunoblot has been duplicated, modified and presented as something else (AKT vs Bcl-2). In addition there are many discontinuities in the Western immunoblots in Figure 4 (arrows). ![file] , 
 #1 I agree. The western blots were sutured. ![file] , 
 Thanks for your comments on our published article.u00a0We are so sorry that we misused the western blot images during the preparation of the figure. We made mistakes in presenting the blots during figure assembly before summiting the paper to the journal because of careless and rash. And when we perform the western blot, we did not put the control group and fucoidan group in the same gel due to miscalculation in design, the bands were mistakenly cut and placed during the process of formatting the figure panels when we prepared the manuscript submission.u00a0We are now correcting the errors as below. We have also contacted the journal about correcting them. ![file] ,