The miR-1908/SRM regulatory axis contributes to extracellular vesicle secretion in prostate cancer

Targeting extracellular vesicle (EV) secretion can have potential clinical implications for cancer therapy, however the precise regulatory mechanisms of EV secretion are not fully understood. Recently, we have shown a novel pathway of EV biogenesis in PCa cell lines, PC3 and PC3M. However, as the characteristics of EVs are divergent even among PCa cell lines, we hypothesized that other pathways or common regulatory pathways of EV biogenesis still exist. Here, we performed quantitative high-throughput screening to determine the key regulatory genes involved in EV biogenesis in 22Rv1 cells, which secrete a different type of EVs. In total, 1728 miRNAs were screened and miR-1908 was selected as the potential miRNA regulating EV biogenesis in 22Rv1 cells. Subsequently, we investigated target genes of miR-1908 using siRNA screening and identified that spermidine synthase (SRM) was the key regulator of EV secretion in 22Rv1 cells. Attenuation of SRM expression significantly inhibited secretion of EVs in 22Rv1 cells, and overexpression of SRM was confirmed in PCa tissues. Furthermore, we found that the number of endosome compartments was increased in cellular cytoplasm after knockdown of the SRM gene. In conclusion, our results showed that miR-1908-mediated regulation of SRM can control secretion of EVs in PCa. In addition, these data suggested that the EV secretion pathway was dependent on cellular characteristics.