Abstract 2992: Propranolol induces G0/G1/S phase arrest and apoptosis in melanoma cells via AKT/MAPK pathway

Both preclinical and clinical studies implied that β-adrenoceptor-blockers (β-blockers) could inhibit the growth of melanoma. However, the underline mechanism is still unclear, especially in acral melanoma. MAPK and AKT pathway is involved in tumor survival and apoptosis. Therefore, we investigated the effect of propranolol on melanoma in the A375, two primary acral melanoma cell lines and mice model. In this study, propranolol significantly reduced cell viability and induced apoptosis by activating intrinsic mitochondrial pathway and inhibiting MAPK and AKT pathway in vitro. Meanwhile, we further highlighted that low dose propranolol could slow down the growth of tumor in immunodeficient mice engrafted with human melanoma cells. Thus, our data firstly showed that propranolol may inhibit melanoma by activating intrinsic mitochondrial pathway and regulating MAPK pathway and AKT pathway. Citation Format: Chengfang Zhou, Xiang Chen, Howard L McLeod, Todd C Knepper, Yijing He. Propranolol induces G0/G1/S phase arrest and apoptosis in melanoma cells via AKT/MAPK pathway. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2992.