circ-GSK3beta Promotes metastasis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by targeting GSK3beta to augment beta-catenin Signaling

Circular RNAs, a novel class of noncoding RNAs, have recently drawn lots of attention in the pathogenesis of human cancers. However, the role of circRNAs in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to identify novel circRNAs that regulate ESCC progression and explored their regulatory mechanisms and clinical significance in ESCC. We found that CircGSK3beta exerts critical roles in promoting ESCC metastasis and may serve as an exploitable therapeutic target for patients with ESCC. The plasma level of circGSK3beta have promising potential to serve as a novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for ESCC detection. We investigated the differential expression profiles of circRNA in three pairs of esophageal squamous cancer tissues and the corresponding adjacent non-cancerous tissues. The data of each group are collected from independent experiments in triplicate. Transcriptomic analysis was carried out using a microarray.