Researchers target telomerase for killing NRAS-mutant melanoma cells

Source: News Medical, May 2018

Targeting telomerase was effective at killing NRAS-mutant melanoma cells, and the impact was further enhanced when the strategy was paired with an inhibitor of mitochondrial function, according to study results by The Wistar Institute published in Oncogene.
“Many melanoma patients do not benefit from new treatment options or experience disease progression because of resistance. Our research advances the search for novel therapeutic strategies to treat NRAS-mutant melanoma, which is highly resistant to most therapies and associated with poor prognosis," said lead researcher Jessie Villanueva, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Molecular & Cellular Oncogenesis Program at Wistar.
Targeting NRAS as well as the other oncogenes of the Ras family has proven extremely challenging, according to Villanueva, and researchers have resorted to searching for vulnerabilities in NRAS-mutant cancer cells that can provide alternative therapeutic targets.

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