BackgroundMicroRNA-154-5p (miR-154-5p) plays a role in tumorigenesis in diverse human malignancies. Nevertheless, little is known about the mechanism by which miR-154-5p alters the growth and metastasis of cervical cancer. This research aimed to analyze the role of miR-154-5p in the pathology of cervical cancerin vitroandin vivo.MethodsThe level of miR-154-5p in human papillomavirus 16 positive cervical cancer cells was examined by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Bioinformatics predicted the downstream targets and potential functions of miR-154-5p. Furthermore, lentiviral technology was used to construct SiHa cell lines with stable up- and down-expression levels of miR-154-5p. Its differential expression effects on the progress and metastasis of cervical cancer were analyzed using cell culture and animal models.ResultsMiR-154-5p showed low expression in cervical cancer cells. Overexpression of miR-154-5p could markedly inhibit the proliferation, migration, and colony formation ability of SiHa cells, concomitantly leading to G1 arrest of the cell cycle, while silencing miR-154-5p triggered the opposite results. Meanwhile, overexpression of miR-154-5p restrained the growth and metastasis of cervical cancer by silencing CUL2in vivo. Additionally, miR-154-5p reduced CUL2 level, and overexpression of CUL2 influenced the effect of miR-154-5p in cervical cancer. In conclusion, miR-154-5p restrained the growth and metastasis of cervical cancer by directly silencing CUL2.