Abstract
Melanoma is one of the most aggressive and fatal cancers; however, effective and long-lasting treatment options for melanoma continue to be sought after due to the development of resistance mechanisms to the currently available therapies. BACKGROUND: The K-homology-type splicing regulatory protein (KSRP) is an RNA-binding regulatory protein that binds to the AU-rich elements at the 3'-UTR of target mRNAs. Prior studies have demonstrated that KSRP plays a crucial role in the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in human melanoma. Subsequently, in this study, we further examined the role of KSRP in cell migration, colony formation, apoptosis, and tumorigenicity of human melanoma. METHODS: KSRP was knocked down in two different human melanoma cell lines: A375 and SK-MEL-28, using lenti-shRNA techniques. By doing so, we studied the effects of KSRP inhibition on cell migration, colony formation, proliferation, apoptosis, and tumorigenicity in these melanoma cell lines. RESULTS: We observed a significant decrease in cell migration, colony formation, proliferation, and tumorigenicity, while also observing a substantial increase in apoptosis in the KSRP knock down melanoma cell lines. CONCLUSIONS: Our data establishes that KSRP plays a vital role in cell migration, colony formation, proliferation, apoptosis, and tumorigenicity in both the A375 and SK-MEL-28 human melanoma cell lines.