New Malignant Melanoma Target Discovered by Yale Researchers

Source: Melanoma News Today, February 2016

Researchers at Yale Cancer Center have discovered a gene that has a dramatic impact on the growth of melanoma. Their observations, titled ”DNMT3b Modulates Melanoma Growth by Controlling Levels of mTORC2 Component RICTOR,” were published in the journal Cell Reports. The study sheds light on how melanoma develops and describes a new target to possibly treat this type of cancer.

Researchers identified a new role for one type of DNA methyltransferase, DNMT3B, in melanoma growth regulation. DNA methyltranferases are enzymes that can chemically modify DNA, and they play critical roles in regulating gene expression during development.

Aberrant DNA methylation of specific genes occurs in all human melanoma, but the functional consequences of methylation and the role of individual methyltransferases in its development are poorly understood.  “Despite a clear role for DNMT3B in a wide variety of human cancers, the signaling pathways that drive cancer formation that are critically affected by DNMT3B are largely unknown,” the authors explain in their study.