TOWARDS NEW THERAPIES AGAINST CANCER: STUDYING PIN1 AS A THERAPEUTIC TARGET IN NEUROBLASTOMA

MASIN M.; IBARRA SOLANGE; GIRARDINI J.

Congreso; LII Reunión Anual Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2016

The development of novel therapies against cancer is a worldwide health priority due to the high incidence of this disease and the lack of effective therapies. Conventional cancer therapies have a very limited ability to distinguish tumor cells from healthy cells. Neuroblastoma (NBL) is a type of childhood cancer that develops from tissues that form the sympathetic nervous system. The ability to interfere exclusively with mechanisms responsible for tumorigenesis can provide the basis for the generation of new therapeutic strategies. Pin1 is an isomerase frequently overexpressed in various tumors and has become an attractive molecule in cancer research. Our results showed that overexpression of Pin1 in a cellular model of NBL did not significantly impact cell proliferation or differentiation in normal cell culture conditions. However, cells stably overexpressing Pin1 showed a significant anchorageindependent growth when cultured in soft-agar. Notably, this kind of proliferation, which is considered a hallmark of carcinogenesis, is completely reversed in presence of Juglone, a Pin1 inhibitor. Also, wound healing assay revealed that Juglone reduced the migration ability of these cells. We concluded that inhibition of Pin1 altered tumor-associated phenotypes of NBL cells, however more studies are being carried out to validate Pin1 as a possible target of new therapies against NBL.