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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: Combined Inhibition of MEK and Plk1 Has Synergistic Antitumor Activity in NRAS Mutant Melanoma.

Authors: Posch, C; Cholewa, B D; Vujic, I; Sanlorenzo, M; Ma, J; Kim, S T; Kleffel, S; Schatton, T; Rappersberger, K; Gutteridge, R; Ahmad, N; Ortiz/Urda, S

Published In J Invest Dermatol, (2015 Oct)

Abstract: About one-third of cancers harbor activating mutations in rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (RAS) oncogenes. In melanoma, aberrant neuroblastoma-RAS (NRAS) signaling fuels tumor progression in about 20% of patients. Current therapeutics for NRAS-driven malignancies barely affect overall survival. To date, pathway interference downstream of mutant NRAS seems to be the most promising approach. In this study, data revealed that mutant NRAS induced Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) expression, and pharmacologic inhibition of Plk1 stabilized the size of NRAS mutant melanoma xenografts. The combination of mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase kinase (MEK) and Plk1 inhibitors resulted in a significant growth reduction of NRAS mutant melanoma cells in vitro, and regression of xenografted NRAS mutant melanoma in vivo. Independent cell cycle arrest and increased induction of apoptosis underlies the synergistic effect of this combination. Data further suggest that the p53 signaling pathway is of key importance to the observed therapeutic efficacy. This study provides in vitro, in vivo, and first mechanistic data that an MEK/Plk1 inhibitor combination might be a promising treatment approach for patients with NRAS-driven melanoma. As mutant NRAS signaling is similar across different malignancies, this inhibitor combination could also offer a previously unreported treatment modality for NRAS mutant tumors of other cell origins.

PubMed ID: 26016894 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Animals; Cell Cycle Checkpoints/drug effects; Cell Cycle Proteins/genetics; Cell Cycle Proteins/metabolism*; Cell Line, Tumor; Disease Models, Animal; Genes, ras/genetics; Heterografts; Humans; MAP Kinase Kinase 1/genetics; MAP Kinase Kinase 1/metabolism*; Melanoma/metabolism; Melanoma/pathology*; Protein Kinase Inhibitors/pharmacology*; Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases/genetics; Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases/metabolism*; Proto-Oncogene Proteins/genetics; Proto-Oncogene Proteins/metabolism*; Random Allocation; Rats; Signal Transduction/drug effects; Signal Transduction/genetics; Skin Neoplasms/metabolism; Skin Neoplasms/pathology*

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