Melanoma: New research has discovered the role of a common molecule in moles that decreases in the presence of diseased cells, but which, when administered from outside, blocks the cancer and prevents it from developing drug resistance.
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One molecule will defeat the melanoma malignant. The solution to a truly devastating cancer seems to be very close and the credit goes to one particle that would be able to block the tumor growth of the skin.
A research group ofPascale Institute of Naples he has in fact discovered the role of one common molecule in nevi that decreases in the presence of diseased cells, but which, if administered from the outside, block cancer and does not cause him to develop resistance to drugs.
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She is there miR-579-3p, is part of the class of microRNAs and functions, precisely, as tumor growth suppressor. The study was published in the scientific journal PNAS and was led by the scientific director of Pascale, Gennaro Ciliberto, and by the director of the Melanoma medical oncology complex, Paolo Ascierto. The research was funded by Airc in collaboration with the Carlo Croce laboratory at the University of Columbus in the United States.
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The researchers found that miR-579-3p is the responsible for the production of two proteins called oncogenes which promote tumor growth. It is a molecule present in abundance in normals in, but the amount of which decreases as a melanoma becomes more aggressive. In addition, it decreases more precisely in melanomas which over time become resistant to the inhibitory drugs of Braf and Mek. When its levels are lowered, therefore, those of the two oncogenes rise.
But with this new investigation, the scientists found that, by a reverse principle, if the molecule is "administered" to cancer cells from the outside, the levels of oncogenes drop and the malignant cells begin to destroy themselves. Furthermore, the external “administration” of the particle together with the Braf and Mek inhibitors subsequently prevents the formation of cells resistant to the two drugs.
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“In the light of these results, it is possible - explains Gennaro Ciliberto - to use miR-579-3p as a drug to improve current therapies through nanotechnological approaches. Furthermore, it will be possible to measure the levels of miR in the blood as a new biomarker to predict the evolution of the disease and the development of resistance to therapies in an early manner ".
The future will then once again be in the hands of Nanotechnology which, hopefully, will give rise to specific therapies in the fight (also) against malignant melanoma. The experimentation, the researchers say, should be launched shortly and, if the results are as expected, it will rekindle the hopes of many patients.
Germana Carillo
