Recent studies have shown that
metal and
metal oxide have a potential function in antitumor
therapy. Our previous studies demonstrated that
cuprous oxide nanoparticles (CONPs) not only selectively induce apoptosis of
tumor cells in vitro but also inhibit the growth and
metastasis of
melanoma by targeting mitochondria with little hepatic and renal toxicities in mice. As a further study, our current research revealed that CONPs induced apoptosis of human
melanoma stem cells (
CD271+/high cells) in A375 and WM266-4
melanoma cell lines and could significantly suppress the expression of MITF, SOX10 and
CD271 involved in the stemness maintenance and
tumorigenesis of
melanoma stem cells.
CD271+/high cells could accumulate more CONPs than
CD271-/low through
clathrin-mediated endocytosis. In addition, lower dosage of CONPs exhibited good anti-
melanoma effect by decreasing the cell viability, stemness and
tumorigenesis of A375 and WM266-4 cells through reducing the expression of SOX10, MITF,
CD271 and genes in MAPK pathway involved in
tumor progression. Finally, CONPs obviously suppressed the growth of human
melanoma in
tumor-bearing nonobese diabetic-
severe combined immunodeficiency (NOD-SCID) mice, accompanied with
tumors structural
necrosis and
fibrosis remarkably and decreased expression of
CD271, SOX10 and MITF. These results above proved the effectiveness of CONPs in inhibiting
melanoma progress through multiple pathways, especially through targeting
melanoma stem cells.