Low Doses of Celecoxib Might Promote Phenotype Switching in Cutaneous Melanoma Treated with Dabrafenib—Preliminary Study

Background: Cutaneous melanoma is a heterogeneous tumor with a rapidly switching molecular and cellular phenotype. The invasive phenotype switching characterized by MITF(low)/AXL(high) predicts early resistance to multiple targeted drugs in melanoma. Celecoxib proved to be a valuable adjuvant in cutaneous melanoma in preclinical studies. Our in vitro study evaluated for the first time whether celecoxib could prevent phenotype switching in two human melanoma cell lines treated with dabrafenib. Methods: All in vitro experiments were carried out on BRAF-V600E-positive A375 and SK-MEL-28 human melanoma cell lines, and subjected to a celecoxib and dabrafenib drug combination for 72 h. Melanoma cells were already in the MITF(low)/AXL(high) end of the spectrum. Of main interest was the evaluation of the key proteins expressed in phenotype switching (TGF-β, MITF, AXL, YAP, TAZ), as well as cell death mechanisms correlated with oxidative stress production. Results: Celecoxib significantly enhanced the apoptotic effect of dabrafenib in each melanoma cell line compared to the dabrafenib group (p < 0.0001). Even though celecoxib promoted low MITF expression, this was correlated with high receptor tyrosine kinase AXL levels in A375 and SK-MEL-28 cell lines (p < 0.0001), a positive marker for the phenotype switch to an invasive state. Conclusion: This preliminary study highlighted that celecoxib might promote MITF(low)/AXL(high) expression in cutaneous melanoma treated with dabrafenib, facilitating phenotype switching in vitro. Our results need further confirmation, as this finding could represent an important limitation of celecoxib as an antineoplastic drug.