Similar results have been reported for circNRIP1 in GC, which promotes GC cell proliferation, migration and invasion by acting as a miR-149-5p sponge and regulating the AKT1/mTOR axis (Zhang et al., 2019), and for circBICD2 in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), which functions as a sponge for miR-149-5p to modulate the miR-149-5p/IGF2BP1 axis in OSCC progression (Qiu et al., 2021). This evidence concerns the gene MTOR and oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma.