CircGLIS3 promotes high-grade glioma invasion via modulating Ezrin phosphorylation (microarray)

High-grade glioma is highly aggressive and malignant, resistant to combined therapies and easy to relapse. A better understanding of circRNA biological function in high-grade glioma might contribute to the therapeutic efficacy. Here, a circRNA merely up-regulated in high-grade glioma, circGLIS3 (hsa_circ_0002874, originating from exon 2 of GLIS3), was validated by microarray and qRT-PCR. Functional experiments uncovered that up-regulation of circGLIS3 promoted glioma cell migration and invasion, and showed aggressive characteristics in tumor-bearing mice. Fluorescence in situ hybridization, RNA pull-down, RNA immunoprecipitation and immunohistochemical staining showed that circGLIS3 could promoted Ezrin T567 phosphorylation. Further investigation showed that circGLIS3 could be excreted by glioma through exosomes and induced endothelial cells angiogenesis. This study indicates that circGLIS3 is up-regulated in high-grade glioma and contributes to the invasion and angiogenesis of glioma via promoting Ezrin T567 phosphorylation. circular RNA microarray analysis of human brain glioma samples.