Jean-Paul Briand, Bernard Krust, Yamina Hamma-Kourbali, Damien Destouches, Renée Lengagne, Sandra Niro, Masashi Kato, Armelle Prévost-Blondel, Ara G. Hovanessian, Marylène Garcette, Diala El Khoury, José Courty, Régulation de la transcription et maladies génétiques (RTMG), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Croissance cellulaire, réparation et régénération tissulaires (CRRET), Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut Cochin (IC UM3 (UMR 8104 / U1016)), Université Paris Descartes - Paris 5 (UPD5)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Unit of Environmental Health Sciences, Chubu University-College of Life and Health Sciences, Immunologie et chimie thérapeutiques (ICT), Cancéropôle du Grand Est-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), This work was supported by CNRS, INSERM, Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC) and Agence Nationale de la Recherche (EMBP 2006). D.E.K was supported by ARC, BMC, Ed., Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Descartes - Paris 5 (UPD5)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de recherche sur la croissance cellulaire, la réparation et la régénération tissulaires (CRRET), Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12) - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut Cochin (UM3 (UMR 8104 / U1016)), Université Paris Descartes - Paris 5 (UPD5) - Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Chubu University - College of Life and Health Sciences, and Cancéropôle du Grand Est - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Background The importance of cell-surface nucleolin in cancer biology was recently highlighted by studies showing that ligands of nucleolin play critical role in tumorigenesis and angiogenesis. By using a specific antagonist that binds the C-terminal tail of nucleolin, the HB-19 pseudopeptide, we recently reported that HB-19 treatment markedly suppressed the progression of established human breast tumor cell xenografts in the athymic nude mice without apparent toxicity. Methods The in vivo antitumoral action of HB-19 treatment was assessed on the spontaneous development of melanoma in the RET transgenic mouse model. Ten days old RET mice were treated with HB-19 in a prophylactic setting that extended 300 days. In parallel, the molecular basis for the action of HB-19 was investigated on a melanoma cell line (called TIII) derived from a cutaneous nodule of a RET mouse. Results HB-19 treatment of RET mice caused a significant delay in the onset of cutaneous tumors, several-months delay in the incidence of large tumors, a lower frequency of cutaneous nodules, and a reduction of visceral metastatic nodules while displaying no toxicity to normal tissue. Moreover, microvessel density was significantly reduced in tumors recovered from HB-19 treated mice compared to corresponding controls. Studies on the melanoma-derived tumor cells demonstrated that HB-19 treatment of TIII cells could restore contact inhibition, impair anchorage-independent growth, and reduce their tumorigenic potential in mice. Moreover, HB-19 treatment caused selective down regulation of transcripts coding matrix metalloproteinase 2 and 9, and tumor necrosis factor-α in the TIII cells and in melanoma tumors of RET mice. Conclusions Although HB-19 treatment failed to prevent the development of spontaneous melanoma in the RET mice, it delayed for several months the onset and frequency of cutaneous tumors, and exerted a significant inhibitory effect on visceral metastasis. Consequently, HB-19 could provide a novel therapeutic agent by itself or as an adjuvant therapy in association with current therapeutic interventions on a virulent cancer like melanoma.