PUBLICATION

Gomesin inhibits melanoma growth by manipulating key signaling cascades that control cell death and proliferation

Authors
Ikonomopoulou, M.P., Fernandez-Rojo, M.A., Pineda, S.S., Cabezas-Sainz, P., Winnen, B., Morales, R.A.V., Brust, A., Sánchez, L., Alewood, P.F., Ramm, G.A., Miles, J.J., King, G.F.
ID
ZDB-PUB-180803-1
Date
2018
Source
Scientific Reports   8: 11519 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides/pharmacology*
  • Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacology*
  • Cell Death/drug effects*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Proliferation/drug effects*
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
  • Heterografts
  • Melanoma/drug therapy*
  • Mice
  • Neoplasm Transplantation
  • Signal Transduction/drug effects*
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
30068931 Full text @ Sci. Rep.
Abstract
Consistent with their diverse pharmacology, peptides derived from venomous animals have been developed as drugs to treat disorders as diverse as hypertension, diabetes and chronic pain. Melanoma has a poor prognosis due in part to its metastatic capacity, warranting further development of novel targeted therapies. This prompted us to examine the anti-melanoma activity of the spider peptides gomesin (AgGom) and a gomesin-like homolog (HiGom). AgGom and HiGom dose-dependently reduced the viability and proliferation of melanoma cells whereas it had no deleterious effects on non-transformed neonatal foreskin fibroblasts. Concordantly, gomesin-treated melanoma cells showed a reduced G0/G1 cell population. AgGom and HiGom compromised proliferation of melanoma cells via activation of the p53/p21 cell cycle check-point axis and the Hippo signaling cascade, together with attenuation of the MAP kinase pathway. We show that both gomesin peptides exhibit antitumoral activity in melanoma AVATAR-zebrafish xenograft tumors and that HiGom also reduces tumour progression in a melanoma xenograft mouse model. Taken together, our data highlight the potential of gomesin for development as a novel melanoma-targeted therapy.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping