: Researchers find molecular factors to treat melanoma skin cancer #IndiaNEWS #Health Columbus: According to a recent study, a group of researchers found important molecular information that could support

Researchers find molecular factors to treat melanoma skin cancer #IndiaNEWS #Health
Columbus: According to a recent study, a group of researchers found important molecular information that could support scientists to develop more effective treatment and strategies to prevent difficult to treat form of melanoma skin cancer.
The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications. In this new report, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC James) researchers identify and describe key features of a gene mutation responsible for 15 to 20% of all melanomas.
Using a preclinical laboratory model, the team establishes that the frequency at which a specific NRAS gene mutation occurs in human melanoma is directly related to the ability of that gene mutation to initiate spontaneous melanoma formation.
This means that properties of the mutant itself rather than the ease at which that specific gene mutation occurs is the cause of cancer formation, said corresponding author Christin Burd who serves an associate professor of molecular genetics in The Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Molecular Genetics and a member of the OSUCCC James Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program.
NRAS-mutant cancers are challenging to treat because effective therapies beyond immunotherapy dont exist yet, said Burd. Each cancer type seems to prefer a specific flavor of mutant NRAS, and it has not been clear why this is. The OSUCCC James wanted to know what made the melanoma-promoting NRAS mutants different than those that promote other cancer types. Scientists say this knowledge could help investigators pinpoint the early events required for melanoma formation and develop treatments that prevent the disease.
Burd and colleagues report their findings in the June 7, 2022, issue of Nature Communications.
Study design and methods
To conduct this study, OSUCCC James researchers developed genetically engineered models that would allow them to activate one of nine different NRAS-mutant variations in melanocytes, the pigment cells that form melanoma.
Amazingly, when we activated these gene mutations only those found in the human disease caused melanoma to develop, said Burd. Some mutants never led to melanoma, yet we know that they cause leukemia. This finding shows that selection of NRAS mutations is specific to each tumor type and occurs during cancer initiation, rather than in response to a specific mutagenic event like sun exposure. Collaborating with Sharon Campbell, a structural biologist at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill, and Debbie Morrison at the National Institutes of Health, Burds team identified that slight variances in the outward facing structure of NRAS mutants capable of initiating melanoma that made these proteins better able to interact with the signaling pathways that drive melanoma growth.

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