• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.465-472
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• 2022

Melanoma is one of the most aggressive skin cancers. Hypoxia contributes to the aggressiveness of melanoma by promoting cancer growth and metastasis. Upregulation of cyclin D1 can promote uncontrolled cell proliferation in melanoma, whereas stimulation of cytotoxic T cell activity can inhibit it. Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a critical role in melanoma metastasis. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) is a main transcriptional mediator that regulates many genes related to hypoxia. CoCl₂ is one of the most commonly used hypoxia-mimetic chemicals in cell culture. In this study, inhibitory effects of IDF-11774, an inhibitor of HIF-1α, on melanoma growth and metastasis were examined using cultured B16F10 mouse melanoma cells and nude mice transplanted with B16F10 melanoma cells in the presence or absence of CoCl₂-induced hypoxia. IDF-11774 reduced HIF-1α upregulation and cell survival, but increased cytotoxicity of cultured melanoma cells under CoCl₂-induced hypoxia. IDF-11774 also reduced tumor size and local invasion of B16F10 melanoma in nude mice along with HIF-1α downregulation. Expression levels of cyclin D1 in melanoma were increased by CoCl₂ but decreased by IDF-11774. Apoptosis of melanoma cells and infiltration of cytotoxic T cells were increased in melanoma after treatment with IDF-11774. EMT was stimulated by CoCl₂, but restored by IDF11774. Overall, IDF-11774 inhibited the growth and metastasis of B16F10 melanoma via HIF-1α downregulation. The growth of B16F10 melanoma was inhibited by cyclin D1 downregulation and cytotoxic T cell stimulation. Metastasis of B16F10 melanoma was inhibited by EMT suppression.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.93-104
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• 2021

Cutaneous melanoma is a fatal disease for patients with distant metastasis. Metformin is the most widely used anti-diabetic drug, and proved to suppress cell proliferation and metastasis in diverse cancers including melanoma. We previously reported that MEK inhibitor trametinib increases the expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) regulators and melanoma cell motility, which are suppressed by addition of metformin in A375 melanoma cells. To confirm our findings further, we first evaluated the effect of metformin in combination with another MEK inhibitor binimetinib on cell viability in G361 melanoma cells. We then investigated whether binimetinib affects the expression of EMT regulators and cell motility. We finally monitored the effect of metformin on binimetinib-induced cell migration. Cell viability assay showed that combination index (CI) value at ED₅₀ is 0.80, suggesting synergy for the combination of metformin with binimetinib. Our results also revealed that binimetinib increased the expression of EMT regulators such as integrin αV, fibronectin and slug, which correlate well with the enhanced cell migration in wound healing assay. Metformin, on the contrary, suppressed the expression of sparc, integrin αV, fibronectin and N-cadherin with the reduced cell motility. The combination treatment showed that metformin counteracts the binimetinib-induced increase of cell motility. Overall, these results suggest that metformin with binimetinib might be useful as a potential therapeutic adjuvant against cell survival and metastatic activity in melanoma patients.

• Journal of Clinical Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.259-263
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• 2018

There are many treatment options for the malignant melanoma. Wide excisional surgery is one of the most acceptable treatments for locoregional treatment. Depending on the pathologic classification, however, some other treatment option can be included such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy as adjuvant treatment. Small cell type malignant melanoma is a rare variant of malignant melanoma. It is known that melanomas manifesting this morphology are invariably in vertical growth phase and have an aggressive course. The authors encountered small cell type malignant melanoma and would like to share the experience of successful treatment with surgery plus immunotherapy as one of adjuvant treatment options.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.119-128
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• 2019

Melanoma is one of the most aggressive and treatment-resistant malignancies. Antidiabetic drug metformin has been reported to inhibit cell proliferation and metastasis in many cancers, including melanoma. Metformin suppresses the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and our previous study showed that it also inhibits the activity of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). Paclitaxel is currently prescribed for treatment of melanoma. However, paclitaxel induced the activation of ERK/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, a cell signaling pathway implicated in cell survival and proliferation. Therefore, we reasoned that combined treatment of paclitaxel with metformin could be more effective in the suppression of cell proliferation than treatment of paclitaxel alone. Here, we investigated the combinatory effect of paclitaxel and metformin on the cell survival in SK-MEL-28 melanoma cell line. Our study shows that the combination of paclitaxel and metformin has synergistic effect on cell survival and suppresses the expression of proteins involved in cancer metastasis. These findings suggest that the combination of paclitaxel and metformin can be a possible therapeutic option for treatment of melanoma.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.119-126
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• 2018

microRNA (miR)-612 shows anticancer activity in several types of cancers, yet its function in melanoma is still unclear. This study was undertaken to investigate the expression of miR-612 and its biological relevance in melanoma cell growth, invasion, and tumorigenesis. The expression and prognostic significance of miR-612 in melanoma were examined. The effects of miR-612 overexpression on cell proliferation, colony formation, tumorigenesis, and invasion were determined. Rescue experiments were conducted to identify the functional target gene(s) of miR-612. miR-612 was significantly downregulated in melanoma tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues. Low miR-612 expression was significantly associated with melanoma thickness, lymph node metastasis, and shorter overall, and disease-free survival of patients. Overexpression of miR-612 significantly decreased cell proliferation, colony formation, and invasion of SK-MEL-28 and A375 melanoma cells. In vivo tumorigenic studies confirmed that miR-612 overexpression retarded the growth of A375 xenograft tumors, which was coupled with a decline in the percentage of Ki-67-positive proliferating cells. Mechanistically, miR-612 targeted Espin in melanoma cells. Overexpression of Espin counteracted the suppressive effects of miR-612 on melanoma cell proliferation, invasion, and tumorigenesis. A significant inverse correlation (r = -0.376, P = 0.018) was observed between miR-612 and Espin protein expression in melanoma tissues. In addition, overexpression of miR-612 and knockdown of Espin significantly increased the sensitivity of melanoma cells to doxorubicin. Collectively, miR-612 suppresses the aggressive phenotype of melanoma cells through downregulation of Espin. Delivery of miR-612 may represent a novel therapeutic strategy against melanoma.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.151-156
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• 2003

Cornis fructus have various biological effects and major chemical components have been tannins, saponins, ursolic acids, gallic acids, linoleic acids, morronisides, cornins and loganins. The main aim of the present study is measurment the effect of chloroform extract from Cornis fructus on proliferation inhibition and Cell death. Cells were cultured in the presence of chloroform extracts from Cornis fructus for 48 h. after 48h treatment of B16/F10 melanoma cells with chloroform extracts, the cells were observed a dose-dependent inhibitions of cell viability with cell death in their proliferation. the cells were estimated cell viability, cell number, total DNA fragmentation and chromatin condensation in a dose-dependent manner. It also caused cell death as measured by cell morphology, DNA fragmentation and nucleus chromatin condensation. therefore, these results suggest that chloroform extracts from C. fructus is inhibitory proliferation and is related to cell death in this cells.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2002

$\beta$-Immunan, a proteoglycan, was isolated from the mycelium of Canoderma lucidum which belongs to a medicinal mushroom. The effects of $\beta$-Immunan on cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions mediated by carbohydrate-recognition and the mechanism responsible for the inhibition of experimental metastasis of Bl6-F10 and B16/BL6 murine melanoma were studied. The results showed that $\beta$-Immunan inhibited Bl6-Fl melanoma cell's adhesion to laminin and asialofetuin-induced homotypic aggregation and reduced invasion against Bl6-F10 murine melanoma cells through matrigel in vivo assay. When $\beta$-Immunan was intraperitoneally administrated to C57B/6 mice bearing B16/BL6 murine melanoma cells, it was decreased the number of pulmonary metastatic colony by the dose dependent manner ranging from 20 to 100 mg/kg/day. The results indirectly indicate that clinical treatment with $\beta$-Immunan might be expected to exhibit anti-metastatic effect. In the pulmonary metastasis, the number of pulmonary metastatic colony of melanoma when $\beta$-Immunan was intraperitoneally administrated to C57BL/6 mice bearing B16/BL6 murine melanoma cells by intravenous injection were decreased by the dose dependent manner ranging from 20 to 100 mg/kg/day.

• BMB Reports
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.608-613
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• 2021

Melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, exhibits a high risk of metastasis. Although chemotherapeutic treatment for metastatic melanoma improves disease outcome and patient survival, some patients exhibit resistance or toxicity to the drug treatment regime. OTUB1 is a deubiquitinating enzyme overexpressed in several cancers. In this study, we investigated the effects of inhibiting OTUB1 expression on melanoma-cell proliferation and viability and identified the underlying molecular mechanism of action of OTUB1. We did endogenous OTUB1 knockdown in melanoma cells using short interfering RNA, and assessed the resulting phenotypes via MTT assays, Western blotting, and cell-cycle analysis. We identified differentially expressed genes between OTUB1-knockdown cells and control cells using RNA sequencing and confirmed them via Western blotting and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Furthermore, we investigated the involvement of apoptotic and cell survival signaling pathways upon OTUB1 depletion. OTUB1 depletion in melanoma cells decreased cell viability and caused simultaneous accumulation of cells in the sub-G1 phase, indicating an increase in the apoptotic-cell population. RNA sequencing of OTUB1-knockdown cells revealed an increase in the levels of the apoptosis-inducing protein TRAIL. Additionally, OTUB1-knockdown cells exhibited increased sensitivity to PLX4032, a BRAF inhibitor, implying that OTUB1 and BRAF act collectively in regulating apoptosis. Taken together, our findings show that OTUB1 induces apoptosis of melanoma cells in vitro, likely by upregulating TRAIL, and suggest that approaches targeting OTUB1 can be developed to provide novel therapeutic strategies for treating melanoma.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.457-461
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• 2006

It is demonstrated that phenolic compound has cytotoxic effect on cancer cells. Recently, ferulic acid is involved in anticancer activity by showing the decrease of cell viability in cancer cells. But, the anticancer mechanism of ferulic acid is left unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the anticancer activity of ferulic acid on NIH3T3 fibroblasts and human skin melanoma cells (SK-MEL-3). The anticancer activity was measured by determining the cytotoxicy of ferulic acid on these cells. The cytotoxicity was measured by cell viability via XTT assay in these cells. In this study, ferulic acid decreased cell viability according to the dose-dependent manners after human skin melanoma cells were treated with various concentrations of ferulic acid for 48 hours. especially, ferulic acid remarkably decreased cell viability at a concentration of $120{\mu}M$ compared with control in human skin melanoma cells. While, ferulic acid did not show the significant decrease of cell viability at concentrations of $30{\sim}120{\mu}M$ in NIH3T3 fibroblasts. These results suggest that ferulic acid showed anticancer activity in cancer cells such as human skin melanoma cells by the decrease of cell viability significantly.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.1-18
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• 2009

Purpose: This study was performed to elucidate the inhibitory effect of Mibaeksan (MB) on melanin synthesis in B16F10 mouse melanoma cell. Methods: To demonstrate the inhibitory effects of MB on melanin synthesis, we measured the amount of released and produced melanin in B16F10 melanoma cell. Also, we evaluated tyrosinase-activity in vitro as well as in B16F10 melanoma cell. And to investigate the action mechanism, we assessed the gene expression of tyrosinase, TRP-1, TRP-2, MMP-2, PKA, $PKC{\beta}$, ERK-1 ERK-2, AKT-1 and MITF in B16F10 melanoma cells. Results: 1. MB decreased the release and production of melanin in B16F10 melanoma cells. 2. MB decreased tyrosinase activity in vitro and in B16F10 melanoma cells. 3. MB decreased the expression of tyrosinase, TRP-1, TRP-2, PKA, $PKC{\beta}$ and MMP-2 in B16F10 melanoma cells. 4. MB increased the expression of ERK-1, ERK-2 and AKT-1 in B16F10 melanoma cells. 5. MB decreased the expression of MITF in B16F10 melanoma cells. Conclusion: From these results, it may be concluded that MB has the antimelanogenetic effects.