The extracts from soft corals have been increasingly investigated for biomedical and therapeutic purposes. The aim of this study is to examine and analyze the anti-
tumor effects of the genus Sinularia extract
sinularin on A2058
melanoma cells using MTT assay, cell migration assay, wound healing assay, flow cytometric analysis, and proteomic analysis.
Sinularin dose-dependently (1-5 μg/mL) inhibited
melanoma cell proliferation while the treatment at identical concentrations suppressed cell migration.
Sinularin dose-dependently enhanced apoptotic
melanoma cells and caused
tumor cell accumulation at G2/M phase, indicating that
sinularin exerts apoptosis-induced and cell cycle-delayed activities in A2058
melanoma cells. Comparative proteomic analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of
sinularin at the molecular level by comparison between the
protein profiling of
melanoma cells treated with
sinularin and without the treatment. Thirty-five differential
proteins (13 upregulated and 22 downregulated) concerning the treatment were identified by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Proteomic data and Western blot displayed the levels of several
tumor inhibitory or apoptosis-associated
proteins including
annexin A1, voltage-dependent
anion-selective channel
protein 1 and
prohibitin (upregulated),
heat shock protein 60,
heat shock protein beta-1, and peroxiredoxin-2 (downregulated) in A2058
melanoma cells exposed to
sinularin. Increased expression of p53, cleaved-caspase-3, cleaved-caspase-8, cleaved-caspase-9, p21, and Bax and decreased expression of Bcl-2 in
sinularin-treated
melanoma cells suggest that the anti-
tumor activities of
sinularin against
melanoma cells are particularly correlated with these pro-apoptotic factors. These data provide important information for the mechanisms of anti-
tumor effects of
sinularin on
melanoma cells and may be helpful for drug development and progression monitoring of human
melanoma.