MicroRNA-126 inhibits proliferation and metastasis by targeting pik3r2 in prostate cancer

The dysregulation of miR-126 has been reported to correlate with the progression of several cancer types. The present study demonstrated that miR-126 was significantly downregulated in prostate cancer (PCa) tissues compared with normal prostate tissues. In vitro and in vivo studies indicated that forced overexpression of miR-126 significantly suppressed the proliferation of PCa cell lines. Additionally, a Transwell assay showed that enhanced expression of miR-126 inhibited metastasis in PCa in vitro. Furthermore, pik3r2 was confirmed to be a direct target of miR-126 in PCa. It was also shown that pik3r2 was upregulated in PCa tissues and this inversely correlated with miR-126 in PCa tissues. In conclusion, these results revealed that aberrant expression of miR-126 promoted the progression of PCa and may serve as a novel therapeutic biomarker for PCa.