MiR-145 suppresses the motility of prostate cancer cells by targeting cadherin-2

Metastasis is the main cause of poor prognosis in the advanced prostate cancer in clinic. Accumulating evidences have proposed that cell motility greatly contributes to the multiple steps of the metastatic process. MicroRNA-145 (miR-145) has been found to be downregulated in prostate cancer and serve as a putative tumor suppressor via decrease of cell growth and augmentation of cell death; however, the effects and the underlying mechanisms of miR-145 in prostate cancer cell motility have not been completely clarified. In the current study, we first demonstrated that miR-145 exerted inhibitory effects on the aggressive phenotype of the prostate cancer cells. Based on the bioinformatics analysis of the putative target genes of miR-145, we further experimentally identified a novel mechanism of miR-145 suppressing the aggressive phenotype of prostate cancer cells via directly targeting cadherin-2 (CDH2) protein translation. Re-expression of CDH2 could rescue miR-145-triggered cell migration and invasion defects. Our results suggested that miR-145 suppressed the motility of prostate cancer cells via post-transcriptional downregulation of CDH2 expression, and miR-145-CDH2 pair might serve as a potential target for intervention of prostate cancer metastasis.