Objective  To investigate the effects of circ-0005273 on the proliferation and apoptosis of esophageal cancer cells and its possible mechanism.

  Methods  The cancer tissues and adjacent tissues of 41 patients with esophageal cancer were collected, and the expression of circ-0005273 and miR-1200 in the tissues were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Esophageal cancer Eca109 cells were cultured in vitro, and were respectively transfected with circ-0005273 small interfering RNA (si-circ-0005273) or miR-1200 mimic, or co-transfected with circ-0005273 small interfering RNA and miR-1200 inhibitor. CCK-8 method and clone formation experiment were used to detect cell proliferation, flow cytometry was used to detect cell apoptosis, the western blotting was used to detect the protein expression of cleaved-caspase9 and cleaved-caspase3 in cells, and the dual luciferase reporter gene experiment was used to verify the regulatory relationship between miR-1200 and circ-0005273.

  Results  The expression of circ-0005273 in esophageal cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues, but the expression of miR-1200 was significantly lower than that in adjacent tissues (P < 0.05). After disturbing circ-0005273 or over-expressing miR-1200, the optical density (OD) value and clone formation number of Eca109 cells significantly decreased (P < 0.05), but the apoptosis rate and the protein expression of cleavde-caspase9 and cleavde-caspase3 increased significantly (P < 0.05). Circ-0005273 was able to target and negatively regulate miR-1200, and disturbing miR-1200 reversed the effect of disturbing circ-0005273 on the proliferation and apoptosis of Eca109 cells.

  Conclusion  Circ-0005273 is highly expressed in esophageal cancer tissues. Disturbing circ-0005273 may hinder the proliferation of esophageal cancer cells and aggravate cell apoptosis by targeting and negatively regulating miR-1200.