The miR-486-5p plays a causative role in prostate cancer through negative regulation of multiple tumor suppressor pathways

MicroRNAs have been broadly implicated in cancer, but their exact function and mechanism in carcinogenesis remain poorly understood. Aberrant miR-486-5p expression is frequently found in human cancers. Here we showed a significant overexpression of miR-486-5p in prostate cancer compared with that in normal tissue and cells, and we proposed that altered expression of miR-486-5p in the prostate contributed to prostate cancer. Firstly, miR-486-5p inhibition expression reduced prostate cancercell proliferation, migration, and colonization in vitro and prostate tumor development in vivo. Moreover, we integrated RNA sequencing and target genes prediction, and systemically identified miR-486-5p candidate target genes. We conducted an experiment verifying that miR-486-5p drives tumorigenesis by directly targeting multiple negative regulators, which were involved in PTEN/PI3K/Akt, FOXO, and TGF-b/Smad2 signaling. Finally, we demonstrated that hypoxia-inducible factor-1a and TCF-12 are located at the miR-486-5p promoter, which stimulates the transcription of miR-486-5p itself. Collectively, our findings unveil miR-486-5p as a powerful prostate cancer driver that coordinates the activation of multiple oncogenic pathways and demonstrates some stimulators, which mediate the miR-486-5p signaling pathway and may be targeted for therapy.