Abstract
Malignant melanoma is one of the untreatable cancers in which conventional therapeutic strategies, including chemotherapy, are hardly effective. Therefore, identification of novel therapeutic targets involved in melanoma progression is urgently needed for developing effective therapeutic methods. Overexpression of interleukin-13 receptor α2 (IL13Rα2) is observed in several cancer types including glioma and pancreatic cancer. Although IL13Rα2 is implicated in the progression of various types of cancer, its expression and roles in the malignant melanoma have not yet been elucidated. In the present study, we showed that IL13Rα2 was expressed in approximately 7.5% melanoma patients. While IL13Rα2 expression in human melanoma cells decreased their proliferation in vitro, it promoted in vivo tumour growth and angiogenesis in melanoma xenograft mouse model. We also found that the expression of amphiregulin, a member of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) family, was correlated with IL13Rα2 expression in cultured melanoma cells, xenograft tumour tissues and melanoma clinical samples. Furthermore, expression of amphiregulin promoted tumour growth, implicating causal relationship between the expression of IL13Rα2 and amphiregulin. These results suggest that IL13Rα2 enhances tumorigenicity by inducing angiogenesis in malignant melanoma, and serves as a potential therapeutic target of malignant melanoma.
Highlights
Malignant melanoma is one of the untreatable cancers in which conventional therapeutic strategies, including chemotherapy, are hardly effective
Newman and colleagues reported that interleukin-13 receptor α2 (IL13Rα2) cooperated with epidermal growth factor receptor mutant (EGFRvIII) to activate the ERK and STAT3 pathways to promote the progression of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM)[17], suggesting that IL13Rα2 actively participates in multiple signal transduction pathways
Positive staining for IL13Rα2 expression was detected in 14 samples (12 primary tumours; 2 metastatic tumours) out of 187 independent human melanoma samples (137 primary tumours; 50 metastatic tumours), which corresponded to 7.5% (14/187) of total cases examined, suggesting that IL13Rα2 was expressed in a group of human melanoma
Summary
Malignant melanoma is one of the untreatable cancers in which conventional therapeutic strategies, including chemotherapy, are hardly effective. IL13Rα2 is implicated in the progression of various types of cancer, its expression and roles in the malignant melanoma have not yet been elucidated. Expression of amphiregulin promoted tumour growth, implicating causal relationship between the expression of IL13Rα2 and amphiregulin These results suggest that IL13Rα2 enhances tumorigenicity by inducing angiogenesis in malignant melanoma, and serves as a potential therapeutic target of malignant melanoma. Despite recent progress in immunotherapy[8], there is an urgent need to develop more effective melanoma treatments being less harmful to normal cells For this purpose, identification of new tumour markers expressed in malignant melanoma will be of great importance. Newman and colleagues reported that IL13Rα2 cooperated with epidermal growth factor receptor mutant (EGFRvIII) to activate the ERK and STAT3 pathways to promote the progression of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM)[17], suggesting that IL13Rα2 actively participates in multiple signal transduction pathways. In the present study, we studied the expression pattern of IL13Rα2 in malignant melanoma and elucidated the relationship between the expression of IL13Rα2 and tumour progression in melanoma
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
