Circular RNA-100290 promotes cell proliferation and inhibits apoptosis in acute myeloid leukemia cells via sponging miR-203

Highlights: • Circular RNA-100290 expression is increased in AML patients. • Circular RNA-100290 promotes cell proliferation and inhibits apoptosis in AML cells. • Circular RNA-100290 interacts with miR-203/Rab10 axis. Circular RNA (CirRNA) is a type of noncoding RNA that has been shown to play a unique role in tumor development and other fields in recent years. In this study, we aimed to explore the biological role of hsa_circ₁00290 in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). First, we found that the expression of hsa_circ₁00290 was increased in human AML samples and cell lines. Down-regulation of hsa_circ₁00290 significantly suppressed cell proliferation of AML cells. Silencing hsa_circ₁00290 also dramatically induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Bioinformatic prediction and luciferase assay revealed that hsa_circ₁00290 and Rab10 were targeted by miR-203. Validation experiments verified that hsa_circ₁00290 was co-expressed with Rab10 and was negatively correlated with miR-203 expression. Moreover, rescue experiments demonstrated that miR-203 inhibitor could reverse the role of hsa_circ₁00290 knockdown on proliferation and apoptosis in AML cells. Overall, the present study identifies the crucial regulation of hsa_circ₁00290 in AML cell proliferation and apoptosis via targeting the miR-203/Rab10 axis.