After exploiting a technology that allowed them to activate each of nearly 16,000 genes individually
in human melanoma cell lines containing mutant BRAF, the authors then treated the panel of cells with the drugs and monitored which cells showed altered drug sensitivity.
«It is anticipated that this novel compound will have significant
efficacy in human melanomas and other cancers either as a stand - alone therapy or in combination with other targeted or immune - based therapies,» explained co-corresponding author Rhoda Alani, MD, the Herbert Mescon Chair of Dermatology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM).
Prof. Marine and his research team also identified a pharmacological way of restoring the expression of
FES in human melanoma.
The Reproducibility Project did not attempt to replicate this finding, but subsequent studies have reported the frequency of PREX2
mutations in human melanoma (Hodis et al., 2012; Krauthammer et al., 2012; Marzese et al., 2014; Ni et al., 2013; Turajlic et al., 2012), including meta - analysis of 241 melanomas (Xia et al., 2014).
Up - regulated expression of zonula occludens protein - 1
in human melanoma associates with N - cadherin and contributes to invasion and adhesion.
Intracellular retention of the NKG2D ligand MHC class I chain - related gene
A in human melanomas confers immune privilege and prevents NK cell - mediated cytotoxicity.
Olga Shakhova, Lukas Sommer and colleagues used a mouse model of melanoma that combined the presence of mutant Nras, a known melanoma - promoting factor, and deficiency of INK4a, which is often
inactivated in human melanoma.
In one of her most recent studies, she and her collaborators discovered that a mutation commonly
found in human melanoma and other cancers is also exceedingly common in an invasive form of canine bladder cancer.
«What's cool about this group of genes is that they also get turned on
in human melanoma,» says Zon, who is also a member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
First, PREX2 was identified as a frequently mutated gene
in human melanoma.