Novel drug OTSSP167 inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis selectively in high-grade serous ovarian cancer cells

Introduction: Our previous transcriptomic analysis identified MELK (maternal embryonic leucine-zipper kinase), suggested to play a key role in carcinogenesis, to be overexpressed in epithelial ovarian cancer. MELK is elevated and correlates with poor prognosis also in basal-like breast cancer and its inhibition by OTSSP167 induced apoptosis in these cells. We analyzed MELK expression in high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) and determined the effect of MELK-inhibition in ovarian cancer cells and drug-resistant cells. Material and methods: Data base analysis was performed using public data sets via Gene Expres…