ABSTRACT
Objective Circular RNA (CircRNA) plays an important role in the carcinogenesis and development of cancers. However, the relationship between circRNA and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has been rarely reported. The aim of this study is to investigate the differentially expressed circRNAs in human NPC and chronic nasopharyngeal mucositis.Methods Three NPC specimens and three chronic nasopharyngeal mucositis specimens which were diagnosed by nasopharyngeal biopsy in the Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University from November 2016 to March 2017, were enrolled in the study. The circRNA expression profiles of those candidates were assayed by high-throughput human circRNA microarray. After pretreatment and homogenization of the original data, the circRNAs with differential expression were screened out and analyzed by hierarchical clustering. Moreover, Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and KEGG pathway analysis were performed to analyze the functional classification and related pathways.Results Compared with the chronic nasopharyngeal mucositis, there are a total of 829 differentially expressed circRNAs in NPC, among which 761 were found to be up-regulated and 68 were down-regulated. Those differentially expressed circRNAs were analyzed to be mainly related to cell cycle, cell proliferation and other biological processes; mainly involved in p53 signaling pathway, cell cycle and DNA replication signaling pathway.Conclusion Those differentially expressed circRNAs may be associated with the tumorigenesis and development of NPC.