Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) controls melanoma cell motility, invasiveness, and metastatic spread—identification of a promising novel therapeutic target
DOI
10.1016/j.tranon.2015.06.002
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
8-1-2015
Publication Title
Translational Oncology
Volume
8
Issue
4
First Page
295
Last Page
307
Abstract
Despite considerable progress in recent years, the overall prognosis of metastatic malignantmelanoma remains poor, and curative therapeutic options are lacking. Therefore, better understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying melanoma progression and metastasis, as well as identification of novel therapeutic targets that allow inhibition of metastatic spread, are urgently required. The current study provides evidence for aberrant cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) activation in primary and metastatic melanoma lesions by overexpression of its activator protein CDK5R1/p35. Moreover, using melanoma in vitro model systems, shRNA-mediated inducible knockdown of CDK5 was found to cause marked inhibition of cellmotility, invasiveness, and anchorage-independent growth, while at the same time net cell growth was not affected. In vivo, CDK5 knockdown inhibited growth of orthotopic xenografts aswell as formation of lung and liver colonies in xenogenic injection models mimicking systemic metastases. Inhibition of lung metastasis was further validated in a syngenic murine melanoma model. CDK5 knockdown was accompanied by dephosphorylation and overexpression of caldesmon, and concomitant caldesmon knockdown rescued cell motility and proinvasive phenotype. Finally, it was found that pharmacological inhibition of CDK5 activity bymeans of roscovitine aswell as by a novel small molecule CDK5-inhibitor, N-(5-isopropylthiazol-2-yl)-3-phenylpropanamide, similarly caused marked inhibition of invasion/migration, colony formation, and anchorage-independent growth of melanoma cells. Thus, experimental data presented here provide strong evidence for a crucial role of aberrantly activated CDK5 in melanoma progression and metastasis and establish CDK5 as promising target for therapeutic intervention.
Open Access
Gold
Repository Citation
Bisht, S., Nolting, J., Schütte, U., Haarmann, J., Jain, P., Shah, D., Brossart, P., Flaherty, P., & Feldmann, G. (2015). Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) controls melanoma cell motility, invasiveness, and metastatic spread—identification of a promising novel therapeutic target. Translational Oncology, 8 (4), 295-307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranon.2015.06.002