Targeting Melanoma-Specific Tyrosinase: Cyclic Peptide Disrupts Actin Dynamics for Precision Apoptosis Induction
Abstract
Melanoma is an aggressive and highly metastatic cancer that exhibits stubborn resistance to conventional therapies, highlighting the need for novel treatments. Existing therapeutic strategies often suffer from systemic toxicity, poor efficacy and fast-gained drug resistance. In this study, we designed a cyclic peptide system (c-RGDKYQ) that takes the advantage of the overexpression of tyrosinase in melanoma cells to trigger enzyme-mediated oxidation and self-assembly. The assembled peptide nanostructures can selectively disrupt the actin cytoskeleton, impairing cancer cellular functions, e.g., motility, adhesion, and proliferation, ultimately leading to apoptosis. This approach does not rely on external drug payloads or complex delivery mechanisms. c-RGDKYQ exhibits high selectivity for melanoma cells, strongly suppressing tumor growth in a murine model with minimal systemic toxicity. Our findings illuminate that, through targeting tyrosinase, c-RGDKYQ may be an enzyme-responsive alternative to conventional treatments for melanoma.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2507.06534,
title = {Targeting Melanoma-Specific Tyrosinase: Cyclic Peptide Disrupts Actin Dynamics for Precision Apoptosis Induction},
author = {Ruoyang Zhao and Xiaowei Wang and Jiajia Hu and Qingqing Sun and Xinmin Zhao and Jun Guo and Feng Zhang and Min Wu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.06534},
year = {2025}
}