Q&A: Researchers discuss identifying potential new protein targets for melanoma therapeutics
Source: Medical Xpress, August 2024
Yu-Hwa Huang, Ph.D. and Charles Yoon, MD, of the Department of Medicine and Department of Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital respectively, are co-lead authors of a paper titled “High-dimensional mapping of human CEACAM1 expression on immune cells and association with melanoma drug resistance," published in Communications Medicine. In this article, they discuss their findings.
How would you summarize your study for a lay audience?
Some proteins, such as programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1), can stop the immune system from attacking cancer cells and, therefore, support the growth of cancer. Therapies targeting these proteins can be highly effective, but tumors can become resistant.
We applied a method to detect proteins at a single-cell level to uncover human carcinoembryonic antigen cell adhesion molecule 1 (CEACAM1) patterns in melanoma. We found that increased CEACAM1 expression levels on multiple different immune cell types was associated with tumors resistant to cancer therapy. This points us to a new potential target for therapy for patients with melanoma resistant to treatment.