The Research Progression and Clinical Significance of Circular RNAs in Head and Neck Cancers

Table 1

Dysregulated circRNAs in HNC.

Primary site	Name	Gene symbol	Dysregulation	Sponge target	Function	Clinical value	Possible mechanism	Reference
OSCC	hsa_circ_0000140	LATS2	Down	miR-31	Suppress cell proliferation, migration, and invasion and facilitated cell apoptosis in vitro	A promising prognostic biomarker and potential treatment strategy for OSCC	circ_0000140/miR-31/LATS2 axis	[30]
	hsa_circ_0005379		Down		Inhibits cancer cell proliferation, invasion	A new therapeutic target for OSCC treatment	Regulate the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway	[31]
	hsa_circRNA_100533	GNAS	Down	miR-933	Inhibit cell proliferation and migration, promote cell apoptosis, and regulate GNAS expression	An effective diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target for patients with OSCC	hsa_circRNA_100533-miR-933-GNAS axis	[32]
	circ-PKD2	APC2	Down	miR-204-3p	Inhibit OSCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, induce apoptosis and cell cycle arrest	A novel pathway involved in the pathogenesis of OSCC and may serve as a novel therapeutic target of OSCC	circ-PKD2/miR-204-3p/APC2 axis	[33]
	hsa_circRNA_102459		Down		Relate to clinical stage, tumor differentiation, and lymph node metastasis and suppressed TSCC1 cell proliferation, induced cell cycle G0/G1 phase arrest, and promoted apoptosis	A tumor promoter and valuable diagnostic biomarkers of OSCC		[34]
	hsa_circRNA_043621		Up		Relate to clinical stage, tumor differentiation, and lymph node metastasis and suppressed TSCC1 cell proliferation, induced cell cycle G0/G1 phase arrest, and promoted apoptosis	A tumor promoter and valuable diagnostic biomarkers of OSCC		[34]
	hsa_circ_009755		Down		Associated with T stage of OSCC	A potential biomarker for OSCC diagnosis		[35]
	hsa_circ_0072387		Down		Related to TNM stage of OSCC	A potential diagnostic biomarker		[36]
	circUHRF1	UHRF1	Up	miR-526b-5p	Associated with proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT) in vitro and the tumor growth in vivo	A potential therapeutic target	circUHRF1/miR-526b-5p/c-Myc/TGF-β1/ESRP1 feedback loop	[37]
PTC	hsa_circ_0058124	NUMB	Up	miR-218-5p	Promotes PTC cell proliferation, tumorigenicity, and tumor invasiveness both in vitro and in vivo	A novel biomarker and a novel therapeutic target for intervening in PTC progression	hsa_circ_0058124/NOTCH3/GATAD2A axis	[40]
	hsa_circ_0006156	FNDC3B	Up	miR-1178	Knockdown of circFNDC3B inhibited cell proliferation and promoted cell apoptosis in PTC cells	A promising therapeutic target for the treatment of PTC patients	hsa_circ_0006156/miR-1178/TLR4 pathway	[43]
	circFOXM1	FOXM1	Up	miR-1179	circFOXM1 downregulation inhibited tumor growth of PTC in vitro and in vivo	A promising therapeutic target for the treatment of PTC patients	circFOXM1/miR-1179/high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) axis	[44]
	circBACH2	LMO4	Up	miR-139-5p	Suppress proliferation, migration, and invasion	A promising prognostic biomarker and potential treatment strategy for PTC	circBACH2/miR-139-5p/LMO4 axis	[45]
	circRAPGEF5	RAPGEF5	Up	miR-198	Beneficial to proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro	A potential biomarker and therapeutic target for the management of PTC	circRAPGEF5/miR-198/FGFR1 axis	[46]
LSCC	hsa_circ_0059354	RASSF2	Up	miR-302b-3p	Silencing circRASSF2 suppresses progression of LSCC by interacting with miR-302b-3p and decreasing inhibiting IGF-1R expression	A potential biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of LSCC	hsa_circ_0059354/miR-302b-3p/IGF-1R axis	[50]
	hsa_circ_0042666	TGFBR3	Down	miR-2238	Associated with advanced tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, and poor overall survival in LSCC patients	A promising target for LSCC treatment and a tumor suppressor	hsa_circ_0042666/miR-223/TGFBR3 axis	[49]
	ciRS-7	CDR1as	Up	miR-7	Relate with high TNM stages, poorly differentiated tumors, lymph node metastases and poor prognosis of LSCC patients.; Enhance cell vitality and promoted the proliferation and migration	An oncogene that promotes LSCC progression	miR-7/CCNE1/PIK3CD signaling pathway	[51]
NPC	circRNA_000543	PDGFRB	Up	miR-9	Associated with poorer overall survival in NPC patients	A potential therapeutic target for radioresistant NPC	miR-9/platelet-derived growth factor receptor B (PDGFRB) axis	[53]
HSCC	hsa_circ_0058106		Up	miR-185-3p	Prevent HSCC cells from undergoing apoptosis	Provide potential candidates for future mechanism studies		[54]
	hsa_circ_0036722	RHCG	Down	miR-671-5p	Facilitate the invasiveness of HSCC	Provide potential candidates for future mechanism studies		[54]
MEC	hsa_circ_0012342		Down		Closely related to the pathogenesis of MEC	Potential prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic target of MEC		[55]

Dysregulated circRNAs in HNC. Abbreviations: OSCC: oral squamous cell cancer; PTC: papillary thyroid cancer; LSCC: laryngeal squamous cell cancer; NPC: nasopharyngeal cancer; HSCC: hypopharyngeal squamous cell cancer; MEC: mucoepidermoid carcinoma.