pharmaceuticals Article CDK11 Loss Induces Cell Cycle Dysfunction and Death of BRAF and NRAS Melanoma Cells Rehana L. Ahmed 1,2, Daniel P. Shaughnessy 3, Todd P. Knutson 4,5 , Rachel I. Vogel 2,6 , Khalil Ahmed 2,3,4,7, Betsy T. Kren 2,3 and Janeen H. Trembley 2,3,4,* 1 Department of Dermatology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA;
[email protected] 2 Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA;
[email protected] (R.I.V.);
[email protected] (K.A.);
[email protected] (B.T.K.) 3 Research Service, Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minneapolis, MN 55417, USA;
[email protected] 4 Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA;
[email protected] 5 Minnesota Supercomputing Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA 6 Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA 7 Department of Urology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 15 February 2019; Accepted: 28 March 2019; Published: 2 April 2019 Abstract: Cyclin dependent kinase 11 (CDK11) is a protein kinase that regulates RNA transcription, pre-mRNA splicing, mitosis, and cell death. Targeting of CDK11 expression levels is effective in the experimental treatment of breast and other cancers, but these data are lacking in melanoma. To understand CDK11 function in melanoma, we evaluated protein and RNA levels of CDK11, Cyclin L1 and Cyclin L2 in benign melanocytes and BRAF- as well as NRAS-mutant melanoma cell lines. We investigated the effectiveness of reducing expression of this survival kinase using RNA interference on viability, clonal survival, and tumorsphere formation in melanoma cell lines.