Knockdown of spindle pole body component 25 homolog inhibits cell proliferation and cycle progression in prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most frequently diagnosed type of cancer in Chinese males. Cell-cycle aberration is a hallmark of cancer. Spindle pole body component 25 homolog (SPC25), a component of the Ndc80 complex, serves an important role in regulating mitotic chromosome segregation. However, the functional roles of SPC25 in PCa remain poorly understood. To the best of our knowledge, the present study was the first to demonstrate that SPC25 is significantly upregulated in PCa. In order to investigate the molecular roles of SPC25, a loss of function assay was performed, revealing that SPC25 knockdown inhibited cell proliferation, and induced a decrease in the number of cells in the S phase and an increase in the number of cells in the G2/M phase. Furthermore, SPC25 knockdown promoted the apoptosis of PCa cells. Additionally, bioinformatics analysis revealed multiple functional roles of SPC25 in regulating cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, transforming growth factor-beta signaling and the SUMOylation pathway in PCa. The present study also evaluated the potential prognostic value of SPC25 using The Cancer Genome Atlas RNA-seq data and demonstrated that SPC25 was upregulated in late stage PCa. Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that lower SPC25 expression was associated with an improved survival rate in patients with PCa. Taken together, these results suggested that SPC25 serves an oncogenic role in PCa and may act as a novel diagnostic and therapeutic target for PCa.