LAUSR

Despite major breakthroughs in melanoma drug development, there remains a need for new drugs and novel approaches. Of the three forms of skin cancer, malignant melanoma has the most significant impact on human health carrying the highest risk of mortality from metastasis. An estimated 87,110 new cases of invasive melanoma will be diagnosed and 9,730 people will die of melanoma in the USA in 2017. Melanoma accounts for less than one percent of skin cancer cases, but the vast majority of skin cancer deaths. The vast majority of melanomas are caused by the sun. In fact, one UK study found that about 86 percent of melanomas can be attributed to exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. The estimated 5-year survival rate for patients whose melanoma is detected early is about 98 percent in the USA, whereas, the survival rate falls to 62 percent when the disease reaches the lymph nodes, and 18 percent when the disease metastasizes to distant organs. Thus, novel effective therapies are urgently needed to treat this disease. The Isatin (1H-indole-2,3-dione) is found as an endogenous molecule in humans and other mammals and its analogs display diverse types of biological activities including anti-cancer activities. Earlier our group synthesized a novel series of 5,7-dibromoisatin analogs. Various melanoma cells were treated with several Isatin derivatives having functional groups like selenocyanate, thiocyanates, thiourea, and selenourea for 72 hours and the cell survival was estimated by MTS assay. Agents were treated with melanoma cell lines UACC 903, 1205 Lu or normal fibroblast cell line FF2441. Treatment with KS99, a thiocyanate analog and KS101, a selenourea analog of 5,7-dibromoisatin effectively killed melanoma cells after 72 h treatment. Overall, IC50 values of Isatin derivatives on melanoma cell lines were 3.0-5.7μM and 2.1-5.7μM, respectively. IC50 value on normal fibroblast cells with these Isatin derivatives was 5.4-20.7μM. KS101 was toxic to the xenograft mice at 1mg/kg body weight, animals developed vein inflammatic symptoms after 20 days of treatment. However, liposomal formulation of KS101 was safe up to 30mg/kg body weight in 1205 xenografted nude mice when treated alternate days by tail vein injection. The melanoma tumor burden was reduced by 47%. We will discuss structural activity relationship (SAR) of Isatin derivatives, and its in vitro and in vivo inhibitory effects against melanoma. Citation Format: Dhimant H. Desai, Raghvendra Gowda, Krishne Gowda, Saketh S. Dinavahi, Gavin P. Robertson, Shantu G. Amin. Inhibition of melanoma development by Isatin analogs [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2806.