Only 4 of the breast/colorectal 'hill' type CAN genes (SMAD4, MYO18B, NAV3 and MMP2) were also mutated in melanoma and pancreatic carcinoma, while none was altered in glioblastoma.
Furthermore, Pin1 inhibition also resulted in decreased phosphorylation of Akt and repressed expression of C-Jun N-terminal kinase and pro-matrix metalloproteinase 2, which were associated closely with the development of melanoma.
To better understand the potential impact of these mutant amino acids on protease function and cancer progression, we established a bioinformatics approach to assessing the impact of melanoma mutants, among a previously defined set of extracellular matrix (ECM) structural proteins, on the sensitivity of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP2), extensively associated with melanoma.
Together, these data indicate that activation of Jak/Vav/Rho GTPase pathway by CXCL12 is a key signaling event for MT1-MMP/MMP-2-dependent melanoma cell invasion.
We used a bioinformatics approach to assess the impact of amino acid (AA) substitutions on the sensitivity of CECMPs to proteases relevant to melanoma and on the binding affinities for HLA class I. CECMP peptides with AA substitutions overwhelmingly reflect increased sensitivity to proteases implicated in melanoma development (MME, CTSS, MMP2, CTSD, CTSL) in comparison to the wild-type peptide sequences.
Interestingly, male patients with a melanoma with overexpression of MMP-2 showed a 10-year disease-specific survival of only 41% compared with 77% in other male patients (P = .003).
Because MMP-2 activity is critical for melanoma progression, the MMP-2 peptide should be cross-presented by most progressing melanomas and represents a unique antigen for vaccine therapy of these tumors.
Our pilot study demonstrates that MMP2, MMP14, MMP9, and MaxND might be used as prognostic markers in patients with sinonasal and oral malignant melanoma.
When B16-BL6 melanoma cells or Lewis lung carcinoma cells were implanted intradermally, the tumor volumes at 3 weeks after implantation in the gelatinase A-deficient mice decreased by 39% for B16-BL6 melanoma and by 24% for Lewis lung carcinoma (P < 0.03 for each tumor).The number of lung colonies of i.v. injections fell by 54% for B16-BL6 melanoma and 77% for Lewis lung carcinoma (P < 0.014 and P < 0.0015, respectively).
Plating cells onto type I or type IV collagen did not trigger pro-MMP-2 activation; on the contrary, conversion of pro-MMP-2 to its active form could be evidenced when melanoma cell lines were seeded in a three dimensional type I collagen lattice.
Since AP-2 also regulates other genes that are involved in the progression of human melanoma such as c-KIT, E-cadherin, MMP-2, and p21(WAF-1), we propose that loss of AP-2 is a crucial event in the development of malignant melanoma.
Melanoma metastasis requires migration and invasion of the malignant tumour cells driven by proteolytic remodelling of the extracellular matrix (ECM) executed by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), particularly MMP-2 and MMP-9.
We also demonstrate that: (1) among the major pro-angiogenic genes, FGF-2 was not increased before or after irradiation and vascular endothelial growth factor strongly inhibited after irradiation; (2) expression of two important metalloproteinases, matrix metalloproteinase 2 and 9, involved in melanoma metastasis were decreased before and after irradiation; (3) expression of their major inhibitor, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase, was mainly upregulated; and (4) that invasion of BRCA1 downregulated cells was modified.
Immunolabeling of melanoma cells with antibodies specific for MMP-2 and MMP-9 led to the identification of two distinct populations of small cytoplasmatic vesicles containing MMP-2 or MMP-9, respectively.