Fig. 1

CircNF1 characteristics and expression in ESCC. A Heat map of differentially expressed circRNAs between the serum of PD and PR patients by human circular RNA Array (circRNAs top ten upregulated and downregulated). B Dot plot representing the positive PCR amplification droplets (blue) and negative droplets without amplification (grey) of circNF1 in patients with different anti-PD-L1 treatment response. C Differential abundance of circNF1 between primary ESCC tissues compared with paired normal esophagus tissues (n = 108). D Expression levels of circNF1 in serum from patients with ESCC (n = 114) and healthy donors (n = 101). E Schematic representation of the genomic locus and structure of circNF1. F Divergent and convergent primers were used to amplify circNF1 in cDNA and gDNA in KYSE150 cells. G Actinomycin D treatment was performed to assess the stability of circNF1 and NF1 in ESCC cells. H The relative expression of circNF1 and NF1 mRNA after Rnase R treatment. I qRT-PCR analysis of circNF1 in the nuclear/cytoplasmic fraction of ESCC cells. J Representative FISH images of circNF1 (red) in KYSE150 and TE1 cells. Blue, DAPI staining of nuclei. Scale bar: 10 μm. The data are presented as mean ± SD. **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001