As the prognosis of early gastric cancer (EGC) is significantly better than that of advanced gastric cancer (AGC), the development of biomarkers to monitor the progression of chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) to gastric cancer (GC) is essential.Stomach tissue miRNA and mRNA sequences from patients with chronic non-atrophic gastritis (CNAG), CAG, precancerous lesions of gastric cancer (PLGC), and GC were analyzed. A publicly available GC-related miRNA microarray dataset was obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Spearman's correlation and differential gene analyses, and clinical validation were used to identify novel miRNAs correlating with CAG progression to GC. miRNA targets were predicted using weighted gene co-expression analysis and databases. A dual-luciferase reporter assay was performed to check for direct interaction between miR-196a-5p and ACER2. The CCK-8 and wound healing assays, and flow cytometry were performed to evaluate cell proliferation, migration, and apoptosis.miR-196a-5p was correlated with CAG progression to GC. Overexpression of miR-196a-5p promoted GC cell proliferation and migration and inhibited apoptosis, whereas suppression of miR-196a-5p exerted the opposite effect. Based on the prediction and luciferase assays, ACER2 was identified as the target of miR-196a-5p. ACER2 was downregulated in GC cell lines. Knockdown of ACER2 increased GC cell proliferation rates and migration ability and inhibited apoptosis, while ACER2 overexpression led to the opposite effect.miR-196a-5p correlated with CAG progression to GC and induced malignant biological behaviors of GC cells by targeting ACER2, providing a novel monitoring biomarker and target for GC prevention.© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.