Objective: Gliomas as primary cerebral malignancies frequently occurring in adults have relatively high morbidity and mortality. The underlying role of long non-coding ribonucleic acids (lncRNAs) in malignancies has attracted much attention, among which tumor suppressor candidate 7 (TUSC7) is a novel tumor suppressor gene whose regulatory mechanism in human cerebral gliomas remains inconclusive.Methods and results: In this study, bioinformatics analysis indicated thatTUSC7could specifically bind to microRNA (miR)-10a-5p, and according to quantitative polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR),miR-10a-5pwas up-regulated in human glioma cells and negatively correlated withTUSC7expression. Dual-luciferase reporter gene assay showed the ability ofTUSC7to bind tomiR-10a-5p, and overexpression ofTUSC7notably inhibitedmiR-10a-5pexpression, restrained human glioma cell proliferation and migration, and regulated cell cycle and cyclin expression via the brain-derived neurotrophic factor/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (BDNF/ERK) pathway. The inhibitory effect ofTUSC7onmiR-10a-5pwas also verified by designingmiR-10a-5poverexpression and knockdown panels for wound healing, Transwell and Western blotting assays.Conclusions:TUSC7suppresses human glioma cell proliferation and migration by negatively modulatingmiR-10a-5pand inhibiting the BDNF/ERK pathway, thus acting as a tumor suppressor gene in human gliomas.