Parkinson's disease-related protein, alpha-synuclein, in malignant melanoma.
BACKGROUND
Melanoma is the major cause of skin cancer death worldwide. Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that is caused by mutation of alpha-synuclein or other genes. Importantly, epidemiological studies have reported co-occurrence of melanoma and Parkinson's disease, suggesting that these two diseases could share common genetic components.


RESULTS
Recently, we found that human melanoma cell lines highly express alpha-synuclein, whereas the protein is undetectable in the non-melanoma cancer cell lines tested. To investigate the expression of alpha-synuclein in human melanoma tissues, we immunostained sections of melanoma, nevus, non-melanocytic cutaneous carcinoma, and normal skin. alpha-Synuclein was positively detected in 86% of the primary and 85% of the metastatic melanoma sections, as well as in 89% of nevus sections. However, alpha-synuclein was undetectable in non-melanocytic cutaneous carcinoma and normal skin.


CONCLUSIONS
The Parkinson's disease-related protein, alpha-synuclein, is expressed in both malignant and benign melanocytic lesions, such as melanomas and nevi. Although alpha-synuclein cannot be used to distinguish between malignant and benign melanocytic skin lesions, it might be a useful biomarker for the diagnosis of metastatic melanoma.
Matsuo
Yasuhiro
Y
Department of Medicine, Center for Molecular Chaperone/Radiobiology and Cancer Virology, Cancer Center, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America.
Kamitani
Tetsu
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D058965:MART-1 Antigen; D008297:Male; D008543:Melanins / Q000378:metabolism; D008545:Melanoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D009506:Nevus / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D010858:Pigmentation; D012175:Retinoblastoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D051844:alpha-Synuclein / Q000378:metabolism*
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D058965:MART-1 Antigen; C548667:MLANA protein, human; D008543:Melanins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D051844:alpha-Synuclein
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