Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) have an increased risk of melanoma compared with the general population. Recently, it has been reported that patients with PD had a 3.8–fold increased risk of melanoma. Likewise, patients with melanoma had a 4.2–fold increased risk of developing PD. It was noted that in this group, melanoma is less likely to metastasize and has a better prognosis compared to people without the disease. It cannot be ruled out that the milder course of melanoma results from the drugs used, of which amantadine deserves special attention.
The aim of the study was to evaluate the dose-dependent cytotoxicity of amantadine in the MTT test on primary and metastatic melanoma cell lines compared to the keratinocyte cells. Two cell lines: A375 (primary malignant melanoma) and SK-MEL 28 (metastatic malignant melanoma) were purchased from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) and used in the experiment. A375 and SK-MEL28, cells were placed on 96-well plates (Nunc, Roskilde, Denmark) at a density of 1 x 104 cells/ml, 3 x 104 cells/ml, respectively. Cell viability was assessed after 72 hours by means of MTT method in which the yellow tetrazolium salt (MTT) is metabolized by viable cells to purple formazan crystals. Formazan crystals were solubilized overnight in sodium dodecyl sulfate buffer (10% SDS in 0.01N HCl) and the product was determined spectrophotometrically by measuring absorbance at 570 nm wavelength using microplate spectrophotometer. Each treatment was performed in triplicate and repeated 3 times. The measure of the cytotoxic activity of amantadine was expressed as its median inhibitory concentration (IC50 value). The value indicates 50% cell growth inhibitory concentration as compared to the control. The calculated IC50 for primary melanoma cell line (A375) was 58.03 ± 4.17 µg/ml and 70.68 ± 10.33 µg/ml for metastatic cell line (SK-MEL 28), respectively.
The obtained results indicated the anti-cancer effect of amantadine. The MTT-assay showed that amantadine has low cytotoxicity and inhibits the proliferation of melanoma cells in both, primary and metastatic cell lines.

ESDRLB021 - Could amantadine become effective in the treatment of malignant melanoma?

50th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Dermatological Research. VIRTUAL MEETING