New class of inhibitory compounds developed to aid melanoma treatments

Source: UCI News, December 2015

Irvine, Calif., Dec. 2, 2015 — A University of California, Irvine pharmacology researcher has helped create a class of inhibitory compounds that can strongly enhance the effect of anti-tumor drugs for melanoma.

In doing so, Daniele Piomelli, the Louise Turner Arnold Chair in the Neurosciences at UCI, and scientists at the Italian Institute of Technology identified how an enzyme called acid ceramidase can accelerate tumor growth in this deadly form of skin cancer.

In skin biopsies of stage 2 melanomas, they found that acid ceramidase is highly activated. This hyperactivity disrupts a normal cell process called apoptosis, or programmed cell death, which ensures the continued function and growth of normal cells. Without this process, mutated, cancerous cells are able to proliferate.