Project description:Melanoma cell lines were assessed for differences in gene expression patterns between the lines sensitive and resistant to BRAF and MEK inhibitor drugs. 22 BRAF-mutant melanoma cell lines were assessed for response to BRAF and MEK inhibitors in a 3 day drug treatment dose response assay. Based on the IC50, 18 lines were found to be responsive to BRAF or MEK inhibition and 4 were resistant. Normalised gene expression data generated from experimental replicate affymetrix arrays was assessed to identify differential patterns of inherent gene expression between the cell lines grouped as drug-responsive or drug-resistant. This were used to idenify specific candidate genes and pathways associated with inherent BRAF/MEK inhibitor drug resistance in melanoma cells.
Project description:Cyclin dependent kinase 11 (CDK11) is a protein kinase that regulates RNA transcription, pre-mRNA splicing, mitosis, and cell death. Targeting of CDK11 expression levels is effective in the experimental treatment of breast and other cancers, but these data are lacking in melanoma. To understand CDK11 function in melanoma, we evaluated protein and RNA levels of CDK11, Cyclin L1 and Cyclin L2 in benign melanocytes and BRAF- as well as NRAS-mutant melanoma cell lines. We investigated the effectiveness of reducing expression of this survival kinase using RNA interference on viability, clonal survival, and tumorsphere formation in melanoma cell lines. We examined the impact of CDK11 loss in BRAF-mutant melanoma on more than 700 genes important in cancer signaling pathways. Follow-up analysis evaluated how CDK11 loss alters cell cycle function in BRAF- and NRAS-mutant melanoma cells. We present data on CDK11, CCNL1 and CCNL2 mRNA expression in melanoma patients, including prognosis for survival. In sum, we found that CDK11 is necessary for melanoma cell survival, and a major impact of CDK11 loss in melanoma is to cause disruption of the cell cycle distribution with accumulation of G1- and loss of G2/M-phase cancer cells.
Project description:To investigate mechanisms of resistance to BRAF inhibitor therapy in melanoma, BRAF mutant cell lines have been chronically exposed to BRAFi to create phenotypes with acquired drug resistance. Expression proteomics is used to examine the differences between naive and drug-resistant cells.
Project description:HDAC8 expression is causative for resistance to BRAF inhibiton and increased migration in BRAF mutant melanoma cell lines. Changes in gene expression were determined upon forced HDAC8 expression in an isogenic cell line.