Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0278883 (metastatic melanoma)
 6,224 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Standard antineoplastic treatment for metastatic melanoma is ineffective in the large majority of patients. Therefore, alternative approaches need to be investigated. STI571 is a new antineoplastic compound, which selectively inhibits the tyrosine kinase activity of ABL, c-Kit and platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR). Melanoma may express all of these proteins. The aim of this study was to investigate whether STI571 inhibits the in-vitro growth of melanoma cells. Nineteen cell lines were obtained from four primary and 15 metastatic melanomas of cutaneous origin. The percentages of positive cells for the putative targets of STI571 were as follows: ABL, 41-100%; c-Kit, 8-97%; PDGFR-alpha, 41-98%; PDGFR-beta, 51-99%. 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium (MTT) and viability assays showed that STI571 clearly inhibits the proliferation of eight of the 19 (42.1%) cell lines. No relationship could be established between the expression of c-Kit, ABL, PDGFR-alpha or PDGFR-beta and the response of cell lines to STI571. Our study shows, for the first time, an antiproliferative effect of STI571 on human melanoma cell lines of cutaneous origin, raising the possibility of the future clinical use of STI571. The identification of the target of STI571 in human cutaneous melanoma cells would allow the selection of patients who could benefit from this treatment.
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PMID:Antiproliferative effect of STI571 on cultured human cutaneous melanoma-derived cell lines. 1656 68

Activating mutations in either BRAF or NRAS are seen in a significant number of malignant melanomas, but their incidence appears to be dependent to ultraviolet light exposure. Thus, BRAF mutations have the highest incidence in non-chronic sun damaged (CSD), and are uncommon in acral, mucosal and CSD melanomas. More recently, activating KIT mutations have been described in rare cases of metastatic melanoma, without further reference to their clinical phenotypes. This finding is intriguing since KIT expression is downregulated in most melanomas progressing to more aggressive lesions. In this study, we investigated a group of anal melanomas for the presence of BRAF, NRAS, KIT and PDGFRA mutations. A heterozygous KIT exon 11 L576P substitution was identified in 3 of 20 cases tested. The 3 KIT mutation-carrying tumors were strongly immunopositive for KIT protein. No KIT mutations were identified in tumors with less than 4+ KIT immunostaining. NRAS mutation was identified in one tumor. No BRAF or PDGFRA mutations were identified in either KIT positive or negative anal melanomas. In vitro drug testing of stable transformant Ba/F3 KIT(L576P) mutant cells showed sensitivity for dasatinib (previously known as BMS-354825), a dual SRC/ABL kinase inhibitor, and imatinib. However, compared to an imatinib-sensitive KIT mutant, dasatinib was potent at lower doses than imatinib in the KIT(L576P) mutant. These results suggest that a subset of anal melanomas show activating KIT mutations, which are susceptible for therapy with specific kinase inhibitors.
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PMID:L576P KIT mutation in anal melanomas correlates with KIT protein expression and is sensitive to specific kinase inhibition. 1737 1

Recently, a number of medications approved for nondermatologic use have proved useful against dermatologic diseases. This article reviews the dermatologic uses and effects of deferasirox, bortezomib, dasatinib, and cyclosporine eye drops. Deferasirox--an oral iron chelator--could be an effective treatment against porphyria cutanea tarda, hemochromatosis, and pathogens such as mucor that thrive in iron rich environments. Bortezomib, a proteasome inhibitor and multiple myeloma treatment, may be effective against nodular amyloid and has been effectively used against squamous cell carcinoma; although trials demonstrate it is ineffective against metastatic melanoma. Bortezomib has many cutaneous side effects including erythematous plaques or nodules, a generalized morbilliform erythema with ulcerations and fever, purpuric eruptions, leukocytoclastic vasculitis, Sweet's syndrome, and folliculitis. Dasatinib is a multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor active in vitro against most cell lines containing BCR-ABL mutations that confer resistance to imatinib. Dasatinib is likely to be effective against dermatofibroma sarcoma protuberans and cutaneous acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and has caused panniculitis. Cyclosporine 0.05% ocular emulsion (eye drops) are approved to treat dry eyes including dry eyes caused by collagen vascular disease. Cyclosporine eye drops might also have utility in treating eye pathology of ocular rosacea, atopic keratoconjunctivitis, graft versus host disease, herpes keratitis, chronic sarcoidosis of the conjunctiva, conjunctival manifestations of actinic prurigo, keratitis of keratitis-ichthyosis deafness (KID) syndrome, and lichen planus-related kerato-conjunctivitis. This article speculates that cyclosporine eye drops would also be useful for any disease causing ectropion or eclabion of the eye as well as toxic epidermal necrolysis-related eye pathology (in particular corneal scarring).
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PMID:A review of deferasirox, bortezomib, dasatinib, and cyclosporine eye drops: possible uses and known side effects in cutaneous medicine. 1737 1

The proliferative cancer cell paradigm that has driven cancer drug development for the past 50 years has failed to generate treatments that cure most metastatic adult cancers. This view is supported not only by cumulative experience with conventional cytotoxic anticancer drugs, but also by the application of highly-targeted anticancer compounds against, for example, BCR-ABL in CML and mutant BRAF in metastatic melanoma. Such drugs often send their respective cancers into complete molecular remission but fail to effect cures because a small population of quiescent or slowly selfrenewing cancer cells that are drug and radiation resistant survive treatment indefinitely. This review explores the grounds for an emerging cancer paradigm that views cancer as a disorganized tissue with hierarchical cellular compartments in which the boudaries are less well-defined than in normal tissues with plasticity controlled by epigenetic changes mediated by the local microenvironment. Increased metabolic flexibility and adaptability give cancer cells an additional survival advantage that may be able to be targeted with drugs like metformin. Combining approaches that target the increased metabolic flexibility of cancer cells as well as ablating rapidly-proliferating cells and self-renewing cancer stem cells in individual cancers are needed to address the holy grail of cancer cure.
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PMID:Cell hierarchy, metabolic flexibility and systems approaches to cancer treatment. 2220 93

Metastatic melanoma remains incurable for many due to its aggressive nature. Secreted cathepsins promote metastasis by cleaving matrix and activating pro-invasive proteases. We reported that ABL kinases induce cathepsin secretion and subsequent metastasis by activating ETS1, SP1, and RELA pathways, indicating that ABL inhibitors may serve as novel anti-cathepsin agents.
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PMID:EnABLing Cathepsin-Driven Melanoma Metastasis. 3025 Sep 13