Analysis of Isoliquiritigenin effect on mitoNEET expression

Melanoma is a serious form of skin cancer due to its ability to rapidly spread to other organs if not treated in the early stages. Like many other types of cancer, there is only palliative treatment for melanoma but no known cure. Primary treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy. Cancer treatment targeting mitochondrial dysfunction, when the mitochondria release reactive oxidative species that cause damage and changes to the expression of proteins, is a promising approach. MitoNEET is a newly discovered mitochondrial protein that is thought to regulate bioenergetics in cells. Decreasing the expression of mitoNEET subsequently induces mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis in melanoma cells. Fluorescence microscopy is used to evaluate changes in mitoNEET expression when exposed to cancer treatments such as isoliquiritigenin (ISL). Human melanoma, A375 cells, were transiently transfected for 24 hours with a mitoNEET-GFP plasmid at a concentration of 150 ng/¼L. After transfection, cells were exposed to ISL for 24 hours and imaged. The initial results show a decrease in protein expression when exposed to 0.1, 1, 10, 100 ¼M and 0.5, 5, 50, 500 ¼M of ISL. Further studies will investigate mitoNEET regulation in response to other cancer therapeutics.