Effects of M1 homeopathic complex on human melanoma cells

Summary: Abstract Body: The treatment of melanoma has advanced consistently in the past 15 years with targeted and immunotherapy. The great improvement in survival rate comes with the cost of moderate to severe side effects in up to 40% of patients treated with combined therapy. Our group is testing homeopathic complex medication to search for less toxic treatments for melanoma. Homeopathy consist of natural substances (plant extracts and minerals) that have little to no side effects. M1 is a combination of Calcarea carbonica plus 18 homeopathic compounds that has previously showed inhibition activity against B16F10 murine melanoma. Previous in vitro research showed reduced tumor cell migration and invasion compared to control, and reduced tumor burden in subcutaneous and lung metastasis mice model. We are performing functional analysis with SK Mel28 cells to check if M1 is also effective against human melanoma cells. We were able to see a decrease in cell number in a 3 day dosage curve test. We used 3 different concentrations of the M1 solution: 2%, 10% and 20%. When cells were cultured in the medium with 5% FBS and treated with 2%, 10% and 20% M1 solution the tumor cells reduced 16%, 27% and 27% respectively. When cells were cultured in the medium with 1% FBS and treated with 2%,10% and 20% M1 solution the tumor cells reduced 53%, 61% and 61% respectively. When analyzing cell viability there was not increased number of dead cells in the M1 cultured cells, which led us to the conclusion that the effect was due to inhibition in cell proliferation and not due to cell death (cytotoxicity). Our next steps will be migration and invasion in vitro assays and tumor growth and metastasis model in vivo studies. With these promising preliminary results we anticipate that M1 might be a candidate treatment for melanoma. Isabela Fleischfresser¹, Jie Li¹ 1. Dr Philip Frost Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, United States. Translational Studies: Cell and Molecular Biology