EXPLORING THE ROLE OF GAMMA- SYNUCLEIN IN MELANOMA

FLORENCIA MALIZIA; LUCIANO ANSELMINO; LUCÍA ZANOTTI; MAURICIO MENACHO MÁRQUEZ

Mar del Plata

Congreso; REUNIÓN ANUAL DE SOCIEDADES DE BIOCIENCIA 2019; 2019

Cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In particular, malignant melanoma is the most lethal form of skin cancer, with incidence indexes increasing over the years. Synucleins are small proteins expressed primarily in neural tissue and in certain tumors. Gamma-synuclein (gS) is detected in a wide range of cancer types, including breast and ovarian cancer, but to date there are no rigorous studies to address the role this protein could have in progression of melanoma. Our goal was to analyze if gS was related to melanoma development. First, by bioinformatics we observed that gS was expressed in melanoma samples, and we confirmed that result by Western blot (WB) and immunocytochemistry (ICC) studies in melanoma cell lines. WB analysis revealed that gS was expressed as different molecular weight species, and by sequential lysis with detergents we could detect that high molecular weight species were present at the cytoplasm of melanoma cells, while monomeric gS was mostly present at the nucleus. By shRNA techniques and the use of expression vectors, we were able to modulate gS expression in B16-F0 (mouse) and A375 (human) melanoma cells. MTT-based proliferation studies revealed that gS expression was not significantly affecting melanoma cells growth (p>0.05). Nevertheless, by fluorescent F-actin staining we observed that increased expression of gS was associated with major cytoskeletal changes. Indeed, by wound healing assays we noted that reduced expression of gS promoted a migratory defect of B16 melanoma cells (p