Circular RNA circ_PVT1 induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition to promote metastasis of cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is one of the most common gynecological malignant tumors. At present, it has been confirmed that the occurrence and development of cervical cancer is related to human papillomavirus infection. As a new regulatory molecule and research hotspot, circRNA is abnormally expressed in tumors and other diseases, and is expected to become a new biomarker for diagnosis and prediction of tumor occurrence and development. In this research, bioinformatics analysis and RT-PCR analysis showed that hsa_circ_0009143 (circRNA_PVT1) was up-regulated in cervical cancer. Knockdown of circRNA_PVT1 inhibits the migration and invasion of cervical cancer cells and would prevent pulmonary metastasis. Overexpression of circRNA_PVT1 induced migration and invasion of cervical cancer cells, which would result in the promotion of pulmonary metastasis. Finally, we found that circRNA_PVT1 can induce EMT of cervical cancer cells via targeting miR-1286 by exosome pathway, which can be a novel mechanism of cervical cancer progression.