The role of MELK in melanoma progression

Survival kinase MELK has been shown to be important for proliferation of several tumors such as brain, breast or prostate. MELK expression is elevated in cutaneous melanoma, therefore, we analyzed the role of MELK in melanoma. Inhibition of MELK in melanoma cell lines resulted in decreased proliferation, increased cell death and decreased invasion. MELK expression is regulated through MAP kinase pathway and inhibition of MAPK pathway leads to diminished MELK expression. Finally, inhibition of MELK reduces tumor size in nude mice. A375 cells stably expressing two individual inducible shRNAs against MELK were used to prepare the total RNA, which was then used to analyze for gene expression using Illumina expression array.