Circular RNA PVT1 acts as a competing endogenous RNA for miR-497 in promoting non-small cell lung cancer progression

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of covalently closed non-coding RNAs and play crucial regulatory roles in human cancer biology. The purpose of the present study was to explore the expression pattern and biological role of circular RNA PVT1 (circPVT1) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We firstly found that circPVT1 was overexpressed in clinical NSCLC tissues and cell lines. NSCLC patients with high expression of circPVT1 exhibited aggressive clinicopathological characteristics and poor prognosis. In vitro assays of the NSCLC cell lines (H1299 and A549 cells) demonstrated that knockdown of circPVT1 inhibited NSCLC cell proliferation and induced NSCLC cell apoptosis. We further found that circPVT1 served as a competing endogenous RNA of miR-497 and indirectly regulated Bcl-2 expression in NSCLC cells. Finally, inhibition of miR-497 abrogated the effects of circPVT1 knockdown in NSCLC cells. Taken together, the results from our study indicated circPVT1 acts as an oncogene in NSCLC, and may serve as a promising therapeutic target for NSCLC patients.