Study Results Suggest Electrical Communication Between Skin Cells May Initiate Melanoma
Source: Pharmacy Times, August 2023
Findings may have therapeutic implications because of the potential to target neurotransmitters to treat or prevent melanoma.
Melanoma is a fatal form of skin cancer that develops in melanocytes, melanin-containing skin cells. These skin cells can release melanin-containing vesicles to keratinocytes, neighboring skin cells, to give skin its color. Melanoma commonly has mutations in genes such as BRAF or NRAS.
Previous work had found that the developmental state of the cell plays a dominant role in this process because some melanocytes have a particular landscape that makes them acceptable for tumor development.