Abstract 4779: HERV-K env plays important roles in cell proliferation, migration and tumor progression in melanoma.
Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are remnants from ancient retroviral infections, and most of them are inactive in normal tissues. However, one family of HERV, HERV-K, is reportedly active in several cancers, including melanoma. Increased expression of HERV-K in melanoma cells correlates with malignant transformation, while a serological response to HERV-K in melanoma patients correlates with survival probability. The mechanism behind these observations remains obscure. Our group reported that anti-HEEV-K envelope (env) protein antibodies shows antitumor potential in targeting breast tumors, indicating that HERV-K env may play an important role in tumorigenesis. In this study, we produced a cell line derived from melanoma cell line A375, in which the expression of HERV-K env was stably knocked down by a lentivector based shRNA. Compared to the control cells, these cells exhibit lower proliferation/migration/invasion rates and lower tumorigenicity in vitro. In vivo, their tumorigenic potential was found to be reduced after inoculation into NOD/SCID gamma mice. Moreover, results of antibody array, RNAseq and Western blotting indicate that altered HERV-K env expression led to changes in expression of several proteins important in oncogenesis and metastasis. These results suggest that HERV-K env plays specific and important roles in melanoma carcinogenesis.

Citation Format: Ming Li, Gary L. Johanning, Feng Wang-Johanning. HERV-K env plays important roles in cell proliferation, migration and tumor progression in melanoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4779. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-4779