How to serialize circular referenced ef poco class using protobuf-net

I'm using marc gravell's protobuf-net and ef core in my project.

long story short, I'm using Inverseproperty attribute on my POCO class which causes a circular reference when I fetch results from database which causes me trauble when I try to serialize data using protobuf net.

I'm currenyl serializing data with Jsonconvert by setting ReferenceLoopHandling = ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore and returning a json string to the client to keep the app in a working state but do not want to use this method as it doesnot make any sense.

I would like to know if it is possible to either prevent EF core generating circular reference when using Inverseproperty attribute or if protobuf-net has an ignore referenceloop handling feature when serializing data..

a simplified version of my poco class is like this:

[ProtoContract]
[Table("CATEGORIES_M")]
public class CATEGORIES_M
{
    public CATEGORIES_M()
    {
        CATEGORIES_M_COLLECTION = new HashSet<CATEGORIES_M>();
        //Product = new HashSet<Product>();
        CM_DATE = DateTime.Now;
    }

    [Key,DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
    [ProtoMember(1)]
    public int CM_ROWID { get; set; }

    [ProtoMember(2)]
    public string CM_NAME { get; set; }

    [ProtoMember(3)]
    public int? CM_PARENT_REFNO { get; set; }

    [ProtoMember(4)]
    [ForeignKey(nameof(CM_PARENT_REFNO))]
    [InverseProperty(nameof(CATEGORIES_M_COLLECTION))]
    public  CATEGORIES_M CATEGORIES_M_PARENT { get; set; }

    [ProtoMember(5)]
    [InverseProperty(nameof(CATEGORIES_M_PARENT))]
    public  ICollection<CATEGORIES_M> CATEGORIES_M_COLLECTION { get; set; }  
}

any help is appreciated