Date of Award
January 2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Medical Doctor (MD)
Department
Medicine
First Advisor
Nita J. Maihle
Subject Area(s)
Oncology
Abstract
The HER3 receptor tyrosine kinase is an important member of the human epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor family, which has received tremendous clinical success as a target in the development of cancer therapeutics. Recent studies have shown that HER3 is associated with poor prognosis in melanoma but the exact mechanisms remain to be unraveled. A secreted isoform of HER3, p85-sHER3, was previously shown by our group to inhibit neuregulin-1 mediated, Akt-dependent breast cancer cell growth in vitro. In this study, we demonstrated that p85-sHER3 inhibits melanoma cell proliferation and migration and further identified tenascin C as the major binding partner with p85-sHER3 in melanoma cell conditioned media via mass spectrometry. Together, these results suggest that p85-sHER3 likely inhibits melanoma development in a tenascin C-dependent manner. This represents a novel approach in explaining the mechanistic role(s) of EGF receptors in melanoma tumorigenesis and promises to open new avenues for drug design and counteracting drug resistance in the treatment of melanoma.
Recommended Citation
Zhu, Mojun, "A Naturally Secreted Her3 Isoform Inhibits Melanoma Cell Migration In A Tenascin C-Dependent Manner" (2015). Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library. 2030.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ymtdl/2030
Comments
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