ZNF280A promotes malignant melanoma development through regulating cell proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle

Malignant melanoma (MM) is the most lethal skin cancer globally, with a high incidence of over 300,000 per year. Though constant efforts have been made to elucidate the mechanisms of MM, we are still away from a complete understanding. Recently, the essential role of zinc finger proteins in tumor development was covered, but none of these roles were explored in MM. Herein, we first identified a zinc finger protein ZNF280A that serves as the risk factor in MM prognosis and acted as a driver of MM development in vitro and in vivo. The level of ZNF280A was significantly higher in the 130 MM tissues than in 18 para-carcinoma tissues. Knockdown of ZNF280A contributed to the inhibition of cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in MM. Furthermore, the mechanism of increased apoptosis and stagnant cell cycle may be associated with p53 expression regulated by ZNF280A. In conclusion, our study first displayed that ZNF280A may promote the development of MM by regulating cell proliferation, migration, invasion, cell cycle, and apoptosis.