Sensitization to the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis augments melanoma tumor cell responses to conventional chemotherapeutic regimens

Metastatic malignant melanoma is highly resistant to chemotherapy, and the average survival rate is under 1 year. The only FDA-approved conventional chemotherapy (i.e., dacarbazine) targets melanoma tumor cells by inducing a form of cell death referred to as apoptosis. However, dacarbazine exhibits a response rate of ∼5%, and combination chemotherapies consisting of cisplatin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine often offer little clinical advantage over dacarbazine alone. Apoptosis is governed by the BCL-2 family of proteins, which is comprised of anti-apoptotic and pro-apoptotic members. To determine if the anti-apoptotic BCL-2 repertoire established the cell death threshold and chemoresistance in melanoma, a novel treatment strategy was designed to inhibit the anti-apoptotic BCL-2 members with ABT-737. Using various melanoma model systems, we determined the affects of ABT-737 on sensitivity to dacarbazine-based regimens. Strikingly, ABT-737 re-sensitized melanoma cell lines to common chemotherapeutics leading to marked BIM-mediated apoptosis. Cellular features of the ABT-737 combination treatments were loss of proliferation, mitochondrial fragmentation, nuclear condensation, phosphatidylserine exposure, and decreased clonogenic survival. We also observed significant anti-tumor activity in an in vivo melanoma model system. Our data indicate that ABT-737 may be a beneficial adjuvant therapy to improve melanoma response rates when conventional chemotherapy is the only option.