Objective To investigate the effect and mechanism of microRNA-125a-5p (miR-125a) on the prolifera⁃ tion of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line HK-1. Methods Human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells (HK-1 cells) and human embryonic kidney immortalized cells (293T cells) were cultured routinely. HK-1 cells were randomly divided into the control group 1, miR-125a overexpression group (transfected with miR-125a mimics), and miR-125a silencing group (transfected with miR-125a inhibitor). Some cells were further divided into the control group 2, miR-125a overexpression group (transfected with miR-125a mimics), and rescue group (transfected with miR-125a mimics and TAZ overexpression simultaneously). The transfection efficiency was verified by detecting miR-125a expression at 48 h after transfection. RTqPCR was used to detect the expression levels of miR-125a-5p and TAZ mRNA, while Western blotting was used to detect TAZ protein expression. Cell proliferation capacity was assessed using the CCK-8 assay and colony formation assay. Tar⁃ getScan and miRDB prediction websites were used to predict the binding site of miR-125a and TAZ. The 293T cells were divided into four groups: WT+miR-ctrl group (co-transfected with TAZ wild-type and miR-ctrl), Mut+miR-ctrl group (cotransfected with TAZ mutant and miR-ctrl), WT+miR-125a group (co-transfected with TAZ-WT and miR-125a mimic), and Mut+miR-125a group (co-transfected with TAZ-MUT and miR-125a). Dual-luciferase reporter gene experiments were conducted to further validate the downstream target of miR-125a. Results There were significant differences in the rela⁃ tive expression levels of miR-125a among the control group 1, the miR-125a overexpression group, and the miR-125a si⁃ lencing group (all P<0. 05). Statistically significant differences were found in the proliferation activity (OD450 values) on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th days after transfection and colony formation numbers in the control group 1, miR-125a overexpression group, and miR-125a silencing group (all P<0. 05). There was significant difference in the relative expres⁃ sion level of TAZ protein among the control group 1, miR-125a overexpression group, and miR-125a silencing group (all P <0. 05). Website prediction indicated the existence of binding sites between miR-125a and TAZ, and mutated sequences (TAZ-3’UTR MT) were designed. MiR-125a directly targeted TAZ in the non-coding region. The relative fluorescence in⁃ tensity of the WT+miR-125a group was lower than those of the WT+miR-ctrl group and the Mut+miR-ctrl group (both P< 0. 05), while there was no significant difference in relative fluorescence intensity among the WT+miR-125a group, WT+ miR-ctrl group and the Mut+miR-ctrl group (all P>0. 05). Statistically significant differences were found in proliferation activity on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th days after transfection and colony formation numbers between the control group 2, miR-125a mimics group, and miR-125a mimics+TAZ group (all P<0. 05). Conclusion MiR-125a can inhibit the proliferation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells, and its mechanism of action is related to the inhibition of its downstream target TAZ expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]